Development of a Modular Reconfigurable Mold for Prototyping of Hollow Microneedles

The main methods for microneedles (MN) producing include photopolymer 3D printing, laser processing and injection molding, the most suitable for mass production. Due to the possible need for reconfiguring the MN, a replaceable element in the mold was used, which is obtained using multi-jet modeling 3D printing with the subsequent refinement with the micro-lathe tool. To obtain a channel in MN, an enamelled copper wire with a diameter of 50 μm was used, stretched along the centers of symmetry of the mold cross sections. To reduce the requirements for the accuracy of mold manufacturing, its entire volume filled is located on one side of the parting plane of the mold halves. The second half of the mold is a flat plate that does not need to be precisely positioned relative to the half being filled. The mold is additionally equipped with a heater and a temperature control system.