Rapid-PROTOtyping-compatible, soft-micro-mould-tooled MANufacturing process chain

技术微型产品的大规模生产需要高精度的模具工具，特别是医疗设备，光学和微系统。这些部件的很大一部分可以使用高度成熟的制造工艺制造：微注射成型。严格的尺寸要求，如特征尺寸和公差使得模具采购步骤是微注射成型中最昂贵的投资。这阻碍了新兴微技术的快速发展，如微流体，这需要多次设计迭代，并且具有令人望而却步的工具成本。特别是在COVID-19大流行推动了全球对医疗诊断的需求之后，这些微型设备的开发变得至关重要。因此，为欧盟建立资源和成本效益高的原型和制造流程至关重要，因为该部门是创新、创造就业机会和社会效益的主要驱动力之一。为了加速高附加值、微型技术产品的发展，PROTOMAN将提供“快速原型兼容、软微模具制造工艺链”，用聚合物制造高精度软微模具工具，而不是昂贵的、精密加工的金属模具，用于微型注塑成型。该项目将采用最先进的增材制造和微制造方法，结合制造、光学、微流体和生命科学等领域，以跨学科的思维方式实现这一目标。在更广泛的范围内，PROTOMAN工艺链将减少开发微型技术产品所需的资源，如劳动力、能源和材料。这将有可能缩短复杂产品进入市场所需的时间，并使中小企业能够快速测试和开发他们的想法，而无需进行重大投资。

The mass production of technological miniature products requires high-precision mould tools, particularly for medical devices, optics, and microsystems. A significant portion of these components can be manufactured using a highly established manufacturing process: micro-injection moulding. Strict dimensional requirements such as feature size and tolerances make the mould procurement step the costliest investment in micro-injection moulding. This hinders the rapid development of emerging micro-technologies, such as microfluidics, which require multiple design iterations and have prohibitive tooling costs. Development of these micro-featured devices has become crucial especially after the COVID-19 pandemic which boosted the global demand for medical diagnostics. Hence, the establishment of resource and cost-effective prototyping and manufacturing processes for the EU is crucial since this sector is one of the main drivers of innovation, the creation of jobs and societal benefits.For accelerating the development of high added-value, miniature technological products, PROTOMAN will will deliver a "Rapid-PROTOtyping-compatible, soft-micromould- tooled MANufacturing process chain" for making high-precision soft-micro-mould tools from polymers, instead of costly, precision machined metal moulds for micro-injection moulding. The project will use state-of-the-art additive manufacturing and micro-fabrication methods to achieve this goal with an interdisciplinary mindset, combining fields such as manufacturing, optics, microfluidics and life sciences.In the wider context, PROTOMAN process chain will reduce the resources needed for the development of miniature technological products, such as labour, energy and materials. This will potentially shorten the time required for intricate products to enter markets and enable SMEs to test and develop their ideas rapidly, without major investments.