An investigation on the effect of surface characteristics on adhesion between polymer melts and replication tools

Understanding interfacial characteristics between a polymer and its associated tool surface is critical to successful optimization of processes such as injection moulding, embossing and extrusion used to produce polymer parts. One of the factors characterizing the strength of the polymer-tool interaction is the adhesion energy and it is specific for a particular polymer-tool pair.

Its magnitude depends upon the tool material, tool coating and surface contamination, where relevant, polymer chemical structure, processing conditions and the surface roughness of the tool substrate. This paper presents the results of an experimental study aimed at determining the effect of selected tool surface characteristics on the work of adhesion, by measuring contact angles of polymer droplets on the surfaces.

The experimental set-up, selection of test parameters and main challenges faced to date are described and experimental results presented.