Micro-injection molding for smart materials, advanced composites, MEMS and microfluidics

这项应用支持收购微注射成型机，能够精密注射热塑性塑料、弹性体和基于碳、纳米晶纤维素(NCC)和聚合物陶瓷的复合材料，用于微结构材料。将新的想法和流程从大学转化为商业产品往往受到阻碍，因为在这一过程的早期没有充分考虑到向大规模制造的飞跃。这在微型制造以及塑料和复合材料的纳米技术领域尤其如此。艾伯塔大学在纳米制造、微电子学和微流体研究方面处于世界领先地位，但目前正在开发的许多工艺和结构仍需要通过注塑等商业聚合物制造技术进行验证。在过去的两年里，主要申请者在制造方面取得了巨大的飞跃，能够在热塑性塑料中复制复杂的3D微结构，将基础结构材料从热固性弹性体和环氧树脂(需要数小时或数天才能固化)转变为热塑性弹性体、导电复合材料和增强聚合物复合材料，同时仍将特征尺寸保持在亚微米水平。然而，使用这些较新材料的制造过程目前必须手工完成，因此无法扩展，因此迫切需要获得能够提高这些技术可靠性的设备。这些先进的制造技术与注塑成型相结合，可以将周期缩短到几秒钟，并使纳米技术和微结构技术应用于传统塑料和工艺。该设备的应用包括：仿生表面和智能材料，如壁虎启发的粘合剂、防生物污垢和防结冰表面；新型复合材料，包括用NCC增强的热塑性塑料，用于使用可再生的生物衍生纳米颗粒进行绿色制造；以及生物医学设备，包括生物兼容的牙科植入物和正畸，以及用于基础生物膜形成和缓解研究的微结构聚合物通道。

This application supports the acquisition of a micro-injection molder, capable of precision injection of thermoplastics, elastomers and composite materials based on carbon, nano crystalline cellulose (NCC) and ceramic-in-polymers for microstructured materials. The translation of novel ideas and processes from universities to commercial products is often hampered by the fact that the leap to large scale manufacturing is not adequately considered early in the process. This can be particularly true in the fields of micromanufacturing and nanotechnology with plastics and composites. The University of Alberta is a world leader in nanomanufacturing, microelectronics and microfluidics research, but many of the processes and structures presently under development still require validation with commercial polymer manufacturing techniques like injection molding. Within the last two years, the primary applicants have made tremendous manufacturing leaps with the ability to replicate complex 3D microstructures in thermoplastics to change the base structural materials from thermoset elastomers and epoxies (which take hours or days to cure) to thermoplastic elastomers, electrically conductive composites and reinforced polymer composites while still maintaining feature sizes at sub-micron levels. The manufacturing processes with these newer materials however must presently be done by hand and are therefore not scalable so there is an urgent need to acquire equipment that can increase the reliability of these techniques. These manufacturing advances combined with injection molding can reduce cycle times to seconds, and allow nanotechnology and microstructuring to be applied to conventional plastics and processes. Applications of this equipment include; biomimetic surfaces and smart materials, like gecko-inspired adhesives, anti-biofouling and anti-icing surfaces; novel composites, including thermoplastics reinforced with NCC, for green manufacturing using renewable, bio-derived nanoparticles; and biomedical devices, including biocompatible dental implants and orthodonics, and microstructured polymer channels for fundamental investigations of biofilm formation and mitigation.