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Ultrasonic Molding Technology: Recent Advances and Potential Applications in the Medical Industry

Recently, ultrasonic molding (USM) has emerged as a promising replication technique for low and medium volume production of miniature and micro-scale parts. In a relatively short time cycle, ultrasonic molding can process a wide variety of polymeric materials without any noticeable thermal degradati...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Heredia-Rivera, Ulisses, Ferrer, Inés, Vázquez, Elisa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6523649/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30979063
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym11040667
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author Heredia-Rivera, Ulisses
Ferrer, Inés
Vázquez, Elisa
author_facet Heredia-Rivera, Ulisses
Ferrer, Inés
Vázquez, Elisa
author_sort Heredia-Rivera, Ulisses
collection PubMed
description Recently, ultrasonic molding (USM) has emerged as a promising replication technique for low and medium volume production of miniature and micro-scale parts. In a relatively short time cycle, ultrasonic molding can process a wide variety of polymeric materials without any noticeable thermal degradation into cost-effective molded parts. This research work reviews recent breakthroughs of the ultrasonic injection molding and ultrasonic compression molding process regarding the equipment and tooling development, materials processing and potential applications in the medical industry. The discussion is centered on the challenges of industrializing this technology, pointing out the need for improvement of the current process’s robustness and repeatability. Among the most important research areas that were identified are the processing of novel engineered and nanomaterials, the understanding and control of the ultrasonic plasticization process and the tooling and equipment development.
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spelling pubmed-65236492019-06-03 Ultrasonic Molding Technology: Recent Advances and Potential Applications in the Medical Industry Heredia-Rivera, Ulisses Ferrer, Inés Vázquez, Elisa Polymers (Basel) Review Recently, ultrasonic molding (USM) has emerged as a promising replication technique for low and medium volume production of miniature and micro-scale parts. In a relatively short time cycle, ultrasonic molding can process a wide variety of polymeric materials without any noticeable thermal degradation into cost-effective molded parts. This research work reviews recent breakthroughs of the ultrasonic injection molding and ultrasonic compression molding process regarding the equipment and tooling development, materials processing and potential applications in the medical industry. The discussion is centered on the challenges of industrializing this technology, pointing out the need for improvement of the current process’s robustness and repeatability. Among the most important research areas that were identified are the processing of novel engineered and nanomaterials, the understanding and control of the ultrasonic plasticization process and the tooling and equipment development. MDPI 2019-04-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6523649/ /pubmed/30979063 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym11040667 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Heredia-Rivera, Ulisses
Ferrer, Inés
Vázquez, Elisa
Ultrasonic Molding Technology: Recent Advances and Potential Applications in the Medical Industry
title Ultrasonic Molding Technology: Recent Advances and Potential Applications in the Medical Industry
title_full Ultrasonic Molding Technology: Recent Advances and Potential Applications in the Medical Industry
title_fullStr Ultrasonic Molding Technology: Recent Advances and Potential Applications in the Medical Industry
title_full_unstemmed Ultrasonic Molding Technology: Recent Advances and Potential Applications in the Medical Industry
title_short Ultrasonic Molding Technology: Recent Advances and Potential Applications in the Medical Industry
title_sort ultrasonic molding technology: recent advances and potential applications in the medical industry
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6523649/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30979063
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym11040667
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