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Title
Japanese:Fabrication of a three-dimensional insect-wing model by micromolding of thermosetting resin with a thin elastmeric mold 
English:Fabrication of a three-dimensional insect-wing model by micromolding of thermosetting resin with a thin elastmeric mold 
Author
Japanese: H. Tanaka, K. Matsumoto, I. Shimoyama.  
English: H. Tanaka, K. Matsumoto, I. Shimoyama.  
Language English 
Journal/Book name
Japanese:Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 
English:Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 
Volume, Number, Page Vol. 17        pp. 2485-2490
Published date Nov. 6, 2007 
Publisher
Japanese: 
English:IOP Publishing 
Conference name
Japanese: 
English: 
Conference site
Japanese: 
English: 
Official URL http://stacks.iop.org/0960-1317/17/2485
 
Abstract For investigating insect flight, a low-cost micromolding technique using a thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mold to fabricate an artificial insect wing with a three-dimensional (3D) shape was developed. The wing consists of 3D polyurethane (PU) frames and a Parylene-C membrane. Using a low-viscosity thermosetting PU resin, this method can fabricate a wing frame with a thickness of 200 µm and a length of more than 100 mm. To create a 3D mold channel for the PU resin, a thin PDMS mold was pressed along the curved surface of a rigid bottom mold. Depositing Parylene-C on the bottom mold made it possible to integrate the molded product with a Parylene film. To estimate the deformation rate of the PDMS mold during the pressing process, the height and width of the molded PU frames were compared with those of the original channels of the PDMS molds. It was found that both the height and width of the PU frame were more than 85% of those of the original channel when the aspect ratio of the channel ranged from 0.5 to 2.0. The length of the PU frame was also found to be related to the aspect ratio. Moreover, the maximum length was over 500 times bigger than the cross-sectional width.

©2007 Tokyo Institute of Technology All rights reserved.