MiniFAB has developed an approach to micro-fabrication that is aimed at reducing manufacturing and development costs by removing the need to use expensive serial processes at the earliest practical point. Microfeatures can be transferred from a micro-tool to a more desirable material if that material cannot be used directly to create the required features. MiniFAB uses conventional low cost replication processes to replicate even the smallest microfeatures, maintaining the excellent quality. This allows testing and evaluation of the prototype micro-device on a platform that could be used for volume manufacture.

• Polymer from polymer

  • Polymer parts and additional polymer tooling can be fabricated from a polymer master using conventional low temperature replication processes such as moulding, casting, printing or stamping applications in low-volume fabrication runs. Suitable for final materials of silicones, epoxies, polyurethane, etc. Patterning some bio-compatible polymers can also be achieved by casting onto a polymer micro-tool.
• Metal from polymer

  • Microfeatures can be fabricated in a metal part or tool by electroforming from a polymer mould. Metal parts can be used in polymer replication, EDM, stamping, printing and perforation processes.
• Polymer from metal

  • MiniFAB can fabricate polymer parts from a metal tool using conventional replication processes such as stamping, casting, hot embossing or injection moulding. One successful application using metal tooling is micro-perforated plastic packaging film that uses metal tools with tightly toleranced spikes to perforate plastic films in a commercial process.
• Metal from metal

  • Our electroforming capability offers direct replication from metal masters into nickel. This is an ideal process for volume production of metal parts containing microfeatures. The metal replicas could also be used as a master in an EDM process to replicate the metal tool into other materials. The process can also be used to invert a structure (ie convert a hole into spike, a convex lens into a concave lens, etc).