I want to make a micro-fluid chip using PDMS. I print the casing for this purpose using SLA material. I want to cure the chip faster. I have a microwave oven (700 Watt). My question is that can I use microwave for curing PDMS? And what will be the effect on SLA part?
Well, I tried microwave oven, and it spoils my mold and also PDMS.
I used 700 Watt microwave oven, I put PDMS for 30 second first and I checked it. For first 30 second it was not so hot and it was stable.
I put it back and turned the microwave oven on for another 30 seconds. When I checked the PDMS it was super hot and also my SLA mold was soften and the shape of mold was changed.
First picture is initial picture before microwave oven and second one is after microwave oven.
Well if we lower the temperature or something can we do it? Also please tell us if you have found any other way other than using those expensive curing ovens(plasma ovens) etc.
Ahmed Abrar if you can control the temperature of the microwave oven it will work better, like using PWM pulses. This may require some changes in normal household microwave oven. During my experiments with microwave oven, I noticed that if I keep heating the PDMS in the microwave oven for more than 1 mint, it was creating problem. You can test 30 secs heating, like heat and give it sometime to cool down and heat again.
For second part of your question, No I did not use any other type of oven.
Thanks
Thank you and ZAZAKUMULLAHU KHAIR for your detailed answer.Could you tell if we can use hot air ovens to cure it? What did you finally use then?
Thanks a lot in advance.
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