Micro assembly injection moulding with plasma treated inserts

Injection moulding is one of the most common manufacturing processes for thermoplastics. By injection moulding, polymer micro components can be produced in large numbers at low costs. Micro assembly injection moulding as a combination of multi-component injection moulding and micro injection moulding enables to avoid offline process steps, as joining is already accomplished in the mould by overmoulding. In case of joint hybrid micro structures, the bonding strength between two components affects the stability of the micro system and is thus important for the part quality. Investigations carried out at the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV), Aachen, Germany, deal with methods to increase the bonding strength of a plastic and a non-plastic part joint. As shown in the following, a plasma treatment of the inserts is an appropriate approach for this aim.