Metal Injection Molding (MIM) is a mass production technique to produce intricately shaped metallic components. A variety of metal co-injection molded components has been produced using several model material systems. This means that one type of material can provide the required surface characteristics , such as corrosion or wear resistance, with a cheaper material forming the core of the components. (eg. Iron as core and stainless steel as skin).
These are :
1. Feed Stock Mixing :
Metal powder is blended with a binder consisting of wax and polymer at about 160*C and subsequently cooled and granulated to pellets.
2. Molding :
At about 160*C, the pellets are rammed into the mold at a pressure of 120 Mpa to for the green molding.
3. Debinding :
Hot air is passed over the components to remove binding materials , resulting in brown metal moldings.
4. Sintering :
The porous components are heated to 1600*C (for ferrous metal/alloys) at very low pressure (10^-3 Mpa). The particles melts / fuse together excluding air/trace of binders resulting in white shiny parts.
Comments
Post a Comment