The use of an extremely thin chemically adsorbed fluorocarbon film (having a thickness of the order of 1 nm) for injection molding greatly reduces the ejection resistance, depending on the mold shape or dimensional accuracy.
Consequently, this technique should be very beneficial when applied to the molding of resin materials that have difficulty with mold release, such as silicone, urethane and elastomer resins. Further, this method will be useful for the molds used for making precision components that need to be highly accurate and ultra thin, such as optical components and chemical chips, for which conventional release agents cannot be used. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.