Rapid-PROTOtyping-compatible, soft-micro-mould-tooled MANufacturing process chain

The mass production of technological miniature products requires high-precision mould tools, particularly for medical devices, optics, and microsystems. A significant portion of these components can be manufactured using a highly established manufacturing process: micro-injection moulding. Strict dimensional requirements such as feature size and tolerances make the mould procurement step the costliest investment in micro-injection moulding. This hinders the rapid development of emerging micro-technologies, such as microfluidics, which require multiple design iterations and have prohibitive tooling costs. Development of these micro-featured devices has become crucial especially after the COVID-19 pandemic which boosted the global demand for medical diagnostics. Hence, the establishment of resource and cost-effective prototyping and manufacturing processes for the EU is crucial since this sector is one of the main drivers of innovation, the creation of jobs and societal benefits.

For accelerating the development of high added-value, miniature technological products, PROTOMAN will will deliver a "Rapid-PROTOtyping-compatible, soft-micromould- tooled MANufacturing process chain" for making high-precision soft-micro-mould tools from polymers, instead of costly, precision machined metal moulds for micro-injection moulding. The project will use state-of-the-art additive manufacturing and micro-fabrication methods to achieve this goal with an interdisciplinary mindset, combining fields such as manufacturing, optics, microfluidics and life sciences.

In the wider context, PROTOMAN process chain will reduce the resources needed for the development of miniature technological products, such as labour, energy and materials. This will potentially shorten the time required for intricate products to enter markets and enable SMEs to test and develop their ideas rapidly, without major investments.