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US 5,792,411 AGranted
Laser machined replication tooling
AssigneeMinnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
InventorsTerry L. Morris, Herbert J. Fox, Thomas P. Hanschen, Philip Miller
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Abstract
The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a replication master tooling article suitable for manufacturing replicated articles by machining a substrate surface with laser energy to produce a plurality of geometric structures in the substrate, the geometric structures having side surfaces extending from the surface of the substrate into the substrate.
Claims19
A method of manufacturing a mechanical fastener from a replication master tooling article, comprising the steps of:
- providing a flexible, thermoset polymeric tooling substrate having a low energy first surface;
- machining to remove material from the first surface of the tooling substrate with a laser light source to produce at least one geometric structure having at least one side surface extending from the first surface of the substrate into the substrate, thereby yielding a replication master tooling article for manufacturing a mechanical fastener;
- applying a moldable material to the first surface and geometric structures of the replication master tooling article;
- at least partially solidifying the moldable material to produce a mechanical fastener;
- and
- removing the mechanical fastener from contact with the replication master tooling article.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.