| Abstract: | The use of plastic materials in place of metals is attractive because of their versatility and ease of batch fabrication, which reduces costs. This article investigates the possibility of using nylon compounds in place of metal materials to make cost‐effective parts through microinjection molding. Experimental results showed that the plastic parts were well formed with high accuracy and reproducibility through microinjection molding. The average tolerance in the dimensions of the plastic parts was less than 20 μm. The resulting composites with 15 wt % carbon particles exhibited the optimum improvement in accuracy, reproducibility, and wear resistance. In addition, the wear loss of the metal parts without lubrication was 4–10 times higher than that of the polymer compounds. The results revealed that the ball‐screw plates made with nylon compounds exhibited high accuracy, reproducibility, and wear resistance, could be produced at low cost, and they could successfully replace S316 metal parts in microinjection molding. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 1645–1652, 2006 |
