Abstract
Injection moulding is a well-established technique for fabricating components in polymer materials. It is an automated production process, which is cost-effective for large series, and flexible in terms of geometries (3D), materials, colours and surface finish This lecture will give an introduction to injection moulding, and the technology used for moulding micro- and nanostructured components. Several components of this kind are fabricated commercially, with applications in microoptics (e.g. DVDs and diffractive optical elements), microfluidics/medicine (e.g. lab-on-a-chip systems and micro filters) and mechanical devices (e.g. micro parts for watches and switches). The main focus of the lecture will be on injection moulding machinery and processing conditions/physics, but critical factors for moulds/inserts and thermoplastic polymer materials will also be summarised.