Patent ID: 9339956
Filing Date: 2016-05-17
CPC Classification: A61M,B29C,B29K,B29L,F16H,Y10T

Claim Text:
1. A method of molding an article, said method comprising: providing a composition comprising at least one thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer (TLCP), with the TLCP comprising a plurality of mesogens; providing a mold comprising a mold cavity, with the mold cavity comprising at least one feature cavity, and each feature cavity comprising at least one fine feature chamber having a minor dimension up to 100 micrometers; heating the composition so as to form molten composition comprising molten TLCP; filling the mold cavity and the at least one feature cavity with a desired amount of the molten composition such that the molten composition filling a body cavity is moving at a first flow velocity that causes at least some flow tumbling of mesogens in the corresponding molten TLCP, and the molten composition filling the at least one fine feature chamber is moving at a second flow velocity that is faster than the first flow velocity and that causes flow alignment of at least a portion of the mesogens in the corresponding molten TLCP relative to a flow direction of the moving molten composition; and solidifying the molten composition such that mesogens of at least the solidified TLCP in the at least one fine feature chamber substantially maintain their flow alignment.