Bond strength of two component injection moulded MID

Most products of the future will require industrially adapted, cost effective production processes and on this issue two-component (2K) injection moulding is a potential candidate for MID manufacturing. MID based on 2k injection moulded plastic part with selectively metallised circuit tracks allows the integration of electrical and mechanical functionalities in a real 3D structure.

If 2k injection moulding is applied with two polymers, of which one is plateable and the other is not, it will be possible to make 3D electrical structures directly on the component. To be applicable in the real engineering field the two different plastic materials in the MID structure require good bonding between them.

This paper finds suitable combinations of materials for MIDs from both bond strength and metallisation view-point. Plastic parts were made by two-shot injection moulding and the effects of some important process parameters on the resulting bond strength were investigated. A simple test setup has been used to measure the bond strength of 2k moulded plastic parts.

This paper expresses the test results in numerical values and suggests suitable combinations of polymers from a large number of possibilities. The results and discussion of the paper could allow manufacturers to have a quick summary of cost effective MID manufacturing technology with drastically reduced deployment time.