Injection-rolling nozzle in an imprint system with continuous injection direct rolling for ultra-thin microstructure guide light plate

• Main Authors: Yan Lou, Kewei Chen, Xiangwei Zhou, Yanfeng Feng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2021-04-01
• Series: Advances in Mechanical Engineering
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/16878140211011274

A novel Injection-rolling Nozzle (IRN) in an imprint system with continuous injection direct rolling (CIDR) for ultra-thin microstructure polymer guide light plates was developed to achieve uniform flow velocity and temperature at the width direction of the cavity exit. A novel IRN cavity was designed. There are eight of feature parameters of cavity were optimized by orthogonal experiments and numerical simulation. Results show that the flow velocity at the width direction of the IRN outlet can reach uniformity, which is far better than that of traditional cavity. The smallest flow velocity difference and temperature difference was 0.6 mm/s and 0.24 K, respectively. The superior performance of the IRN was verified through a CIDR experiment. Several 0.35-mm thick, 340-mm wide, and 10-m long microstructural Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA) guide light plates were manufactured. The average filling rates of the microgrooves with the aspect ratio 1:3 reached above 93%. The average light transmittance is 88%.