The use of 3D in‐mold decoration technology to form a film with printed circuits

In‐mold decoration is an integrated process for plastic processes, such as printing, hot pressing, and injection molding. The process has simpler steps, the production time is shorter, products are more durable, and manufacturing costs are less than traditional methods. In‐mold decoration is affected by shape, mold design and the parameters for forming, and cracking, wrinkling or stress concentration can occur. A large curvature can produce cracks and wrinkles. This study designs a series of experimental methods for film forming, hot press forming, and injection molding. The effects of various features on the quality of the hot press forming and injection molding processes are determined. A three‐dimensional film forming process uses pressure thermoforming technology to form either without pretensioning, with pretensioning, and with local heating. The local heating method gives the best results. For injection molding processes, the mold temperature, the melt temperature, the injection speed, and the holding pressure are the parameters. The injection molding process is optimized using the Taguchi method, and the factor with the highest contribution is determined to be the holding pressure. The conductive line of the finished in‐mold decoration product can be formed smoothly by hot pressing using local heating, and the measured resistors are almost the same after each process. A three‐dimensional film forming process with pressure thermoforming was used to form a 3D film with printed circuits. When a heating block is used to control the local temperature, the optimal stretching state is achieved. Transparent PC films were subjected to pressure thermoforming and injection molding to produce IMF products. Resistance measurements after each process show that the resistance is not significantly affected.