The wear rates and performance of three mold insert materials

0261-3069/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2010.08.008 ⇑ Corresponding author. Address: School of Mechan ing, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Republic of Singapore. Tel.: +65 6790 5588; fax: +65 E-mail address: [email protected] (Z.W. Zhon In this study, a rapidly solidified aluminum alloy was compared with beryllium copper and 6061 aluminum alloys in terms of their wear rates, hardness and performance as mold insert materials. A Vickers hardness measuring machine and a tribometer were used to determine the hardness values and wear rates of the materials. Three sets of mold inserts were made of these materials, and the insert surfaces and the molded plastic lens surfaces were characterized using a scanning electron microscope and a surface profilometer, respectively. The investigation results indicate that the BeCu alloy has the lowest wear rate, while aluminum 6061-T6 has the highest wear rate. Although the rapidly solidified aluminum alloy is not as hard as the BeCu alloy, the differences between their wear rates and hardness values are not as great as the differences between aluminum 6061-T6 and the BeCu alloy. The results also indicate that the rapidly solidified aluminum alloy performs much better than aluminum 6061-T6 in molding of plastic lenses and is comparable to the BeCu alloy. It is able to attain finer surfaces of the molded plastic lenses. This is an important finding, and this means that the rapidly solidified aluminum alloy can replace the BeCu alloy as a good mold insert material, because beryllium (Be) is a toxic element. The finding gives the industry a better choice for selection of mold insert materials. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.