Two-Component Micro Injection Moulding For Hearing Aid Applications
Two-Component Micro Injection Moulding For Hearing Aid Applications
Two-Component Micro Injection Moulding For Hearing Aid Applications
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6 authors, including:
A. Islam H. N. Hansen
Technical University of Denmark Technical University of Denmark
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Myers Bondo
University of Liberia
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Abstract Two-component (2k) injection moulding is an areas like hearing aids. By using these material combina-
important process technique at the present state of technol- tions, a demonstrator 2k micro part has been fabricated. The
ogy, and it is growing rapidly in the field of precision micro moulding machine was a state-of-the-art 2k micro machine
moulding. Besides combining different material properties from DESMA. The fabricated micro part was a socket house
in the same product, two-component moulding can elimi- integrated with a sealing ring for the receiver-in-canal hear-
nate many assembly steps in the manufacturing process ing instrument. The test performed on the demonstrator
chain. One of the biggest technical challenges associated showed the potential of the 2k moulding technology to be
with 2k moulding is the unavailability of suitable material able to solve some of the existing problems associated with
combinations which can meet the diverse requirement from hearing instruments.
both product and process point of views. When it comes to
the point of micro application, the precise dimensional re- Keywords Two-component injection moulding . RIC
quirement and tolerance make the 2k moulding a technically socket . Sealing ring
challenging process. This paper presents an industrial case
study of 2k micro moulding covering all the important
issues like product design, material selection, moulding 1 Introduction
and functionality testing of the micro moulded 2k parts.
An intensive search for suitable 2k materials is made and Two-component injection moulding is a unique process tech-
few combinations of plastic materials are presented in the nique that combines two different plastic materials in the same
paper which can be used for highly demanding application product. The widespread use of the technology started during
the 1980s. Since then, the market has exploded, and today,
there are ordinary toys, toothbrushes, tool handles, etc. all
manufactured with 2k technology. The technology can also
be found in specialized areas like the telecom, automotive,
A. Islam (*) : H. Hansen : J. Angel
packaging, medical technologies, etc. More and more prod-
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Technical University of Denmark, ucts are being redesigned at present to harvest the full advan-
Lyngby, Denmark tage provided by two-component moulding.
e-mail: [email protected] But when it comes to the point of micro moulding, the 2k
M. Marhöfer : M. Bondo
process imposes great challenges even at the present state of
SONION A/S, technology. In strongly adhering material combinations, two
Roskilde, Denmark different plastics form an interface zone where two materials
melt and mix together [1]. For micro 2k moulding, this
B. Dormann
interface zone can be bigger than the dimension of the part
DESMA GmbH,
Desmastr, or some features in the part. This possesses a big challenge
Achim, Germany for many well-known combinations of plastic materials to
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
be used in 2k micro moulding. Micro parts have relatively the benefit of BTE and completely in the canal hearing aid
higher surface area to volume ratio which changes the heat systems [2]. The RIC hearing aid is more stylish, more
transfer characteristics, wettability and mechanical behav- aesthetically appealing and functionally versatile than the
iour of the part [1]. All these points together make 2k micro traditional BTE hearing aid system.
moulding more complex compared to the 2k macro scale The main problem associated with the RIC connector today
moulding. is the inadequate sealing between the plug and socket which
This paper presents the results from experimental inves- allows sweat, moisture, dirt and other foreign particles to get
tigation to prove the feasibility of using 2k micro moulding inside the socket house and initiate corrosion with the inner
process for precision application. The feasibility test is car- metallic components of the RIC system. Subsequently, the
ried out with a newly developed micro 2k machine and by connection between plug and socket is hindered, and the
using some unconventional pairs of plastic materials. The hearing aid cannot work anymore. To overcome this problem,
part design, material selection and moulding process are a new design of RIC socket is proposed in the current paper
optimized so that the process chain can successfully produce with an integrated sealing ring to protect the inner metallic
the demonstrator parts, and the whole production chain is components of the RIC connector.
discussed in the paper. Besides this, the paper introduces a An O-ring or sealing ring is a torus- or doughnut-shaped
new receiver-in-canal (RIC) socket for hearing aid applica- ring usually moulded with elastomeric materials and can
tions which can potentially overcome some critical problem prevent the loss of a fluid or gas from a system [3]. In this
of the corresponding existing product. paper, the term sealing ring is used for a part which is moulded
from elastomeric materials and used as a prevention system
for gaining outer fluid, gas or particles inside the closed area
between plug and socket of a RIC hearing aid. Figure 2 shows
2 Demonstrator product
the conventional design of a RIC socket and a new design of a
RIC socket with an integrated sealing ring in it. The detail
The chosen demonstrator product for this investigation is a
design of a demonstrator RIC socket combined with sealing
RIC socket for the RIC hearing aid system. RIC hearing aid
ring is presented in Figs. 5 and 6. The paper reveals the full
refers to a behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid where the
process chain for socket production based on this new design
receiver (loudspeaker) is placed outside the hearing aid
by two-component micro injection moulding.
body. A thin wire that is insulated in a thin tube connects
the receiver with the rest of the hearing aid body. The
mechanism that connects the hearing aid body with the
hearing aid receiver is called a RIC connector, and it is 3 Two-component machine used in the investigation
usually comprised of a combination of a plug and a socket
(see Fig. 1). The RIC connector is the enabling technology The moulding machine used for this experiment was a
behind the recent boost in BTE hearing aid which combines newly developed 2k micro moulding machine from
Fig. 1 Schematic
representation of a RIC hearing
aid and RIC connector (plug
and socket)
Wire
Receiver
assembly
Plug
Socket
DESMA. The FormicaPlast has a two-phase injection unit 4.1 Part geometry
and uses a screwless injection system to plasticize and inject
the plastic materials into the mould cavity (Fig. 3). Shot As mentioned before, the test part for this investigation was
weight ranging from 10 to 400 mg is possible to produce the new design of a hearing aid RIC socket, and the most
with this machine [4]. significant design improvement is the integration of a seal-
In FormicaPlast, the pre-plastification is realized by a ing ring to provide sufficient sealing after the socket is
6-mm piston with the heat from the heater band, and a connected with the plug. The common cross-section design
3-mm piston is used for high-precision injection of material for a sealing design would be a circular cross section. The
into the mould cavity (see Fig. 4). The machine uses a conventional way to produce the 2k socket would be sepa-
simple transfer index mechanism to switch between the rately produced socket house and sealing ring assembled
shots. After the first shot mould is opened, the inserts are together. In the current case, the chosen production method
raised out of the mould plates by forward motion of the is 2k moulding to eliminate the need for separate assembly
rotary arm and rotated through 180° to get to the new operation. To facilitate the 2k moulding process, the part
injection position. The transfer from the first position to design needs some adjustment (schematically presented in
the second position takes only 0.2 s. Fig. 5). In the modified design, the circular cross section of
the sealing ring is replaced with a square shape to ease the
tooling operation, and an inlet (injection point) is made in
the socket house so that the second material (sealing ring
4 Experimental investigation material) can be injected after the injection of the first
material. The detailed design and dimensional specifications
The objectives of this experiment are to design, optimize of the new RIC socket are presented in Fig. 6.
and produce the hearing aid RIC socket integrated with the
sealing ring by the use of a state-of-the-art 2k machine and 4.2 Plastic materials
to test the feasibility of using a moulded sealing ring for
precision application. The material selection and process Material selection is crucial for hearing aid application.
optimization for micro 2k moulding are conducted in the Micro moulding requires special plastic materials, and when
current experimental investigations. it comes to the point of micro 2k moulding, the material pair
Plastic granulate
Plasticization piston
Mould insert
Granulate
Core plate
Backing plate
Fig. 4 Schematic representation of an injection unit of FormicaPlast 2k machine from DESMA (left) and transfer index mechanism for 2k
moulding in FormicaPlast machine (right) [5]
for 2k moulding should fulfil even more critical require- final choice of the materials would be made based on the
ments. For this specific case, the two components in the process capabilities and functional tests performed on the
final geometry would be moulded by two different plastic moulded parts.
materials which have to fulfil many different engineering
demands. The requirements to be fulfilled by selected ma- 4.3 Moulding
terial pairs are listed in Table 1.
Based on the requirements mentioned in Table 1, the Before injection moulding, all the materials were dried
following materials were selected for 2k moulding and according to the manufacturer recommendations. In the first
tested with the selected moulding machine (Table 2). The trial of injection moulding for each material, the
Fig. 5 New socket design integrated with a sealing ring—socket design based on conventional sealing ring and assembly (left) and modified socket
design based on 2k micro moulding (right)
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 6 Schematic
representation and dimensional
specifications of a new socket
based on 2k production concept
(All dimensions in the picture
are in millimetres.)
B B
recommended process parameters from material manufac- the sprue size is smaller in the case of the DESMA machine,
turers were tried, and in case of a bad result, trials and errors less material is wasted. In the case of this 2k RIC socket, the
were made to find the optimized parameters for the specific material saving by DESMA machine is about 80%, and in
case of DESMA 2k machine and hearing aid RIC socket. the long run, that will be a significant saving on the price of
The final injection moulding process parameters for differ- the plastic materials.
ent materials are listed in Table 3. One problem encountered during the moulding trial was
The standard sprue size of DESMA’s FormicaPlast ma- the flash in the moulded part. The mould had some defects
chine is relatively small compared with the other standard and flatness errors which contributed to the flash; moreover,
machine. A relative comparison is presented in Fig. 7. As some materials had relatively lower melt viscosity which
Table 1 List of requirements to be fulfilled by 2k material combinations for hearing aid applications
Requirements to be fulfilled by hard plastic Requirements to be fulfilled by soft plastic
Suitable for micro injection moulding Suitable for micro injection moulding
Good bonding in 2K moulding Chemical resistance
High thermal resistance Good bonding with the hard plastic
High strength Good sealing, low compression set
Good electrical insulation Higher hardness and friction resistance
Bio-compatibility Bio-compatibility
Chemical resistance
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Hard plastic
No. Name Abbreviation Trade name Grade Manufacturer
1 Polyetheretherketone PEEK Victrex 150GL30 Victrex
2 Polyimide PA 66 Ultramid A3EG10 -GF50 BASF
Soft plastic
No. Name Abbreviation Trade name Grade Manufacturer
1 Thermoplastic elastomer TPE Thermolast TC5PCZ Kraiburg TPE, Germany
2 Thermoplastic elastomer TPE Lifoflex UV56.01B038-3 Müller Kunststoffe, Germany
3 Thermoplastic elastomer TPE Dryflex A1 600602 Elasto, Sweden
4 Thermoplastic elastomer TPE Thermoflex 60A23-800 PTS, Germany
5 Thermoplastic vulcanizate TPV Santoprene 8291-60B500 ExxonMobil Chemicals, USA
added to the flash problem. The socket was successfully two materials stay together during the part ejection and also
moulded with Ultramid PA (for socket house) and TPE gives the part sufficient mechanical strength over the entire
Thermolast (for sealing ring) by the 2k machine. The socket life cycle of the product. In the current product, it is
house was moulded in the first shot and the sealing ring was important that the sealing ring does not fall out during
moulded in the second shot. The other material combination part ejection after 2k moulding and does not fall off
giving an acceptable result was Ultramid PA and TPE Dry- during the use of the hearing instrument either. Other
flex. Figure 8 shows the pictures of 2k moulded socket than these, there is no special requirement on the bond-
houses with two different material combinations. Micro- ing of the two materials. Based on the experience, the
scopic investigation shows that both TPE materials could authors of this paper claim that 1 MPa will be an
replicate the specific shape of the sealing ring. But the acceptable bond strength in this case.
replication quality was better in the case of TPE Thermolast. To characterize the bonding between Ultramid PA and
In the case of some TPE materials, the bonding with the TPE Thermolast, tensile test samples were moulded using
hard plastic was poor, and the sealing ring was pulled off the same process parameters used in the production of the
easily (Fig. 9). Table 4 summarizes the important moulding 2k socket. The tensile bars were moulded in two different
results in the case of different thermoplastic and elastomeric ways. In the first case, PA was moulded with a close gate,
materials. and after that, the gate was opened in the mould, and TPE
Thermolast was moulded. This process was symmetric to
the production of the 2k socket. To compare the bond
5 Test and results strength obtained from this, 2k tensile bars were also
moulded with the open gate and simultaneous injection of
5.1 Bond test two materials from the two different sides of the mould was
done. Test specimens produced in these two different pro-
One of the important technical aspects of a two-component cesses are shown Fig. 10. A Mecmesin Imperial 1,000
plastic part is the bonding between the two different materi- tensile testing machine was used to characterize these parts
als. Stronger bonding facilitates the 2k moulding so that the with the accompanying software Mecmesin Emperor. The
Table 3 Process parameters finally used in the case of different materials in 2k moulding
Parameters PA66 PEEK TPE Thermolast TPE Dryflex TPE Thermoflex TPE Lifoflex TPV Santoprene
Nozzle temperature (°C) 290 370 250 200 180 190 280
Plasticizing temperature (°C) 280 365 240 190 180 185 275
Cylinder temperature (°C) 270 360 230 190 180 180 270
Mould temperature (stationary half) (°C) 100 180 80 100 100 60 32
Mould temperature (moving half) (°C) 100 200 80 100 100 60 35
Injection speed (mm/s) 100 500 150 200 100 150 –
Cycle time (S) ≈7 ≈5 ≈7 ≈7 ≈7 ≈7 –
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 7 Comparative sprue size—smaller sprue from DESMA machine 5.2 Sealing test
and bigger sprue from conventional injection moulding machine
One of the most important functions of the newly moulded
test speed used was 36 mm/s. The tensile test results are socket house is to provide sealing for the inside metallic
presented in the charts in Fig. 10. components. To characterise the sealing property of the
Having an elastomeric material in the 2k combination is moulded sealing ring, a test rig was developed. It consisted
advantageous from the bonding point of view [6]. This is of two heavy brass plates for clamping the socket house.
because the elastomeric material absorbs some energy dur- One brass plate had two guide pins, and the other one had
ing the elastic deformation process before it starts to break at two corresponding holes for the alignment and clamping of
the interface. In the current case, the average bond strength the two brass plates. The plate with the guide pins had a
was about 1.6 MPa for sequential moulding. In the second small hole in the centre matching the dimension of the
case of simultaneous injection moulding, the average bond socket. Before the socket was inserted with the integrated
strength found was about 2.15 MPa. The reason for higher sealing ring facing upwards, a standard sealing ring is
bonding in this case is the sufficient melting and mixing of inserted to ensure tight sealing between the socket and plate.
the two materials together during 2k moulding. But the After the insertion of the socket in the cavity, the second
scenario of moulding the 2k socket is close to the sequential brass plate was mounted. The moulded sealing ring
provided sealing between the second plate and socket house. there will also be atmospheric pressure both inside and
The top plate had an inlet for water. The water pressure outside the socket house. So if the sealing rings can with-
could be applied inside the socket through a small hole. The stand even 1 bar of gauge pressure that is acceptable for this
manometer connected to the top plate could read the pres- hearing aid application [8].
sure developed inside the socket house. Figure 11 shows the
components of the test rig, and Fig. 12 shows the test setup
along with test results.
Samples were taken randomly for the test. The gauge 6 Discussion and summary
pressure was recorded before the start of leakage of water.
In most cases, the sealing ring could withstand at least 2 bar The investigation conducted in the current paper proved the
of gauge pressure. After 2 bar in the manometer, the pump- feasibility of producing the new socket house with an inte-
ing was stopped due to the leakage problem in the manom- grated sealing ring by micro two-component injection
eter screw. In total, five sockets were tested. The results are moulding. The use of the FormicaPlast from DESMA makes
presented in Fig. 12. All sockets could withstand at least the production process faster and convergent by eliminating
1 bar of gauge pressure; most of them could resist 2 bar. the need for handling and assembly of micro parts like the
Only one failed before reaching 2 bar. Nonetheless, 1 to small sealing rings. The chosen material pair (Ultramid PA-
2 bar of gauge pressure is a good result because the sealing TPE Thermolast) from several options shows potential for
ring does not have to resist any pressure above atmospheric hearing aid application both from product and process point
pressure. When the socket is mounted at the hearing aid, of views.
Table 4 Moulding overview from 2k moulding trial with Micro 2k FormicaPlast machine
Ultramid PA66 Possible to process and can be combined with soft plastic Thermolast K (Kraiburg Possible to process and good
A3EG10—from in 2k TPE, Germany) bonding with PA by 2k moulding
BASF
Victrex PEEK PEEK was difficult to process because the temperature Dryflex (Elasto, Sweden) Possible to process and reasonable
150GL30—from control and the heating cartridges were not customized for bonding with PA
Victrex PEEK. Suitable temperature control and hearing device
would make better results
Santoprene Difficult to process with the
(ExxonMobil selected machine
Chemicals, USA)
Thermoflex Possible to process but obtain
poor bonding with PA
Lifoflex Possible to process but obtain poor
bonding with PA
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
10
10
8
8
Load (N)
Load (N)
4
4
2 2
0 0
0 4 8 12 14 20 0 4 8 12 14 20
Displacement (mm) Displacement (mm)
Fig. 10 Schematic representation and dimensional specifications of new socket design based on 2k production concept
One concern is the long-term sealing behaviour of the In the injection moulding, there was problem with flash,
sealing ring material. Elastomeric materials lose their seal- especially with most of the TPE materials. Another problem
ing property over time due to the material creep. But this with TPE materials were the tunnel gates in the mould. In
depends on the compression set of elastomeric material, and some cases like TPE Lifoflex, the shear deformation caused
in the current case, the chosen material TPE Thermolast has in the tunnel gate during the part ejection was too high, and
a relatively lower compression set compared to other avail- the bond between the TPE material and the PA socket was
able material. That means the material will recover well too weak. As a consequence, the sealing ring was pulled out
from the compression loading, and this will ensure that the of the socket. De-gating TPE material was another problem.
sealing rings retain their sealing properties over a longer The tunnel gate usually facilitates the automatic de-gating of
period of time. the sprue from the part, but in the case of TPE, the shear
Fig. 11 Schematic Top plate
Manometer Guiding
representation of the newly
developed sealing tester for RIC Water
socket connection
Bottom plate
Core
Standard o-ring
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Fig. 12 Schematic representation of sealing test and test results performed on five different 2k sockets
deformation does not allow a smooth break in the connec- for superior sound quality and also to incorporate more
tion of the gate and the part. A smart redesign of the tunnel hearing aid components—like a microphone or on–off
gate or using another gate type might improve the situation. switch or volume control with the same socket base—
A cutting mechanism can be introduced in the gate so that can be facilitated with the additional number of contact
the TPE materials will be cut in the gate instead of breakage pins in the socket. While providing more functions and
during the part ejection. features, the future RIC connector will still ensure the
required sealing between the plug and socket utilizing a
sealing ring to protect all the inner metallic components.
7 Future work