TSE: High Temperature Micromolding of Aluminum Parts

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is made under the NSF/EPA Partnership for Environmental Research TSE 2001. The research objective of this effort is to demonstrate the technical feasibility of mass replication of high-aspect-ratio metallic miroparts by fabricating aluminum cross-flow heat exchanges. Currently a major technical barrier to mass replication of aluminum parts by high temperature micromolding is the undesirable interaction between the hot/molten aluminum and micromold. This leads to soldering and consequently the inability to separate the mold from the molded aluminum part. The approach to be taken is to uniformly coat highly nonplanar micromolds in a manner that it makes it possible to eject the aluminum part from the miromold after molding operation. This will be achieved by using plasma-assisted, vapor-phase deposition technology to deposit conformal coatings with uniform chemical and mechanical properties onto the surfaces of high-aspect-ratio micromolds. Mircomolds are fabricated using the deep X-ray lithography/electrodeposition based microfabrication technique at the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices at Louisiana State University. If successful, this research will allow modification of the near-surface properties of the micromold to enable easy and repeated mold/part separation, hence removing a major existing technical barrier in mass replication of aluminum parts by high temperature micromolding. This will lead to increased end-use energy savings and efficiencies associated with the creation of compact heat exchangers.