PRECISION MANUFACTURING OF MICRO CERAMIC INJECTION MOLDED IMPLANTS

摘要

Micro injection molding is an upcoming and strongly growing field for the production of microcomponents and micro structured surfaces of different materials in various application areas [1].Especially micro ceramic injection molding (μ-CIM) of different ceramic materials and compositesenables the implementation of this manufacturing technology e. g.; in the medical industry for implantmanufacturing or as ceramic bone replacement material. In all these application fields, precisionengineering is a key issue when talking about the industrial manufacturing processes. In this presentationthe μ-CIM process was applied to manufacture a series of 320 Al2O3 stapes. After a first starting phase of50 components [2] where the injection molding parameters varied strongly, 270 stapes were characterizedin respect to dimensional tolerances at 6 different positions. Tolerances of 0.5 to 5 % by means ofstandard deviation of the respective length could be achieved, meeting the final tolerances of acorresponding implant.