A processing technology that facilitates quality injection molding without prior drying of polymer pellets has been proposed. The main idea is not to let the water evaporate to bubbles inside the mold. The polymer will be maintained hydrated as it was in the hopper of the injection molding machine throughout the entire molding processes by controlling the cavity pressure above the saturation pressure of water until solidified. In this work, the gas counter pressure (GCP) system has been designed and built to maintain the cavity pressure above the saturation pressure. The performance of the proposed method has been examined by checking the visual quality and the mechanical properties of the molded parts. The method has been tested with pellets of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polycarbonate, polyethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate, and polyamide 66. The results show that the GCP prevents surface impairment incurred by the vapors without or with minor effects on the mechanical properties. Finally, the effects of energy saving has been examined by conducting the actual process for 1 day.

For mass production of liposomes, we designed a plastic micro-channel device on the basis of 5 μm of micro-nozzle array forming T-junction with 100 μm depth of micro-channel. A micro-channel unit for synthesizing liposomes consisted of two micro-nozzle arrays for mixing two solutions as well as delivery and recovery channels for supplying solutions and collecting liposome suspension. The number of micro-nozzles was approximately 2400 for a micro-channel unit, and seven units were applied independently on a micro-channel plate. The plastic micro-channel plate was injection-molded for mass production using a micro-channel stamper previously fabricated by UV lithography and nickel electroforming process. A plastic cover plate with seven pairs of inlet and outlet ports was machined by mechanical milling and drilling and was assembled with a micro-channel plate using a holder to form a liposome synthesizing device. Flow and mixing of solutions in the micro-channels were tested using colored water to check the micro-fluidic characteristics of the device. Finally, a L-α-phosphatidylcholine (SOY PC) liposome was synthesized using EtOH solution of SOY PC (95%) and saline (0.85% NaOH solution) to find that the liposomes were around 230 and 260 nm in diameter, depending on the flow rate of the lipid solution.

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A transparent poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) optical micro-pyramid array-pattern is designed and fabricated using an injection modeling technique. The device's optical characteristics are tested and analyzed theoretically. In the optical pattern generated using the fabricated PMMA pattern, the components, due to not only refraction but also diffraction, are observed simultaneously. Wave optic modeling and analysis reveals that the energy ratio between the diffraction and refraction in the optical pattern are dependent on the critical dimension of the optical pattern such that the refraction and diffraction tend to be directly and inversely proportional to the pattern dimension, respectively.