Cure characterization of technovit 3040 for micro level surface replication

The development of a cure kinetics model for Technovit 3040 (1-part powder to 1-part liquid composition) is presented. Technovit 3040 is a fast curing thermoset polymer which is increasingly used for making replica of metal surfaces for meterological observations. The reference surface used is a metal work-piece processed using the electro-discharge machining to produce 5 surface area-zones having different roughness. It is practical to replicate surface of a component with its roughness characteristics to facilitate measurements by high-tech devices in laboratories, rather than inspecting the surface on site. This shows the level of accuracy in surface replication, which is moving from the micron to the nano-level for wider ranges of applications in nano-technology and biomedical sciences. The curing trends at each of the four temperatures observed during the experimental studies and as predicted by the model are the same. It was found that the curing process was faster at 303K and 318K.