High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are attracting attention because of their excellent properties and functions; however, they are relatively expensive compared with commercial alloys. Therefore, various efforts have been made to reduce the cost of raw materials. In this study, MIM is attempted using coarse equiatomic CoCrFeMnNi HEA powders. The mixing ratio (powder:binder) for HEA feedstock preparation is explored using torque rheometer. The block-shaped green parts are fabricated through a metal injection molding process using feedstock. The thermal debinding conditions are explored by thermogravimetric analysis, and solvent and thermal debinding are performed. It is densified under various sintering conditions considering the melting point of the HEA. The final product, which contains a small amount of non-FCC phase, is manufactured at a sintering temperature of 1250°C.
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Nanopowders provide better details for micro features and surface finish in powder injection molding processes. However, the small size of such powders induces processing challenges, such as low solid loading, high feedstock viscosity, difficulty in debinding, and distinctive sintering behavior. Therefore, the optimization of process conditions for nanopowder injection molding is essential, and it should be carefully performed. In this study, the powder injection molding process for Fe nanopowder has been optimized. The feedstock has been formulated using commercially available Fe nanopowder and a wax-based binder system. The optimal solid loading has been determined from the critical solid loading, measured by a torque rheometer. The homogeneously mixed feedstock is injected as a cylindrical green body, and solvent and thermal debinding conditions are determined by observing the weight change of the sample. The influence of the sintering temperature and holding time on the density has also been investigated. Thereafter, the Vickers hardness and grain size of the sintered samples have been measured to optimize the sintering conditions.
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A powder injection molding process is developed and optimized for piezoelectric PAN-PZT ceramics. Torque rheometer experiments are conducted to determine the optimal solids loading, and the rheological property of the feedstock is evaluated using a capillary rheometer. Appropriate debinding conditions are chosen using a thermal gravity analyzer, and the debound specimens are sintered using sintering conditions determined in a preliminary investigation. Piezoelectric performance measures, including the piezoelectric charge constant and dielectric constant, are measured to verify the developed process. The average values of the measured piezoelectric charge constant and dielectric constant are 455 pC/N and 1904, respectively. Powder injection molded piezoelectric ceramics produced by the optimized process show adequate piezoelectric performance compared to press-sintered piezoelectric ceramics.
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Powder injection molding (PIM), which combines the advantages of powder metallurgy and plastic injection molding technologies, has become one of the most efficient methods for the net-shape production of both metal and ceramic components. In this work, plasma display panel glass bodies are prepared by the PIM process. After sintering, the hot isostatic pressing (HIP) process is adopted for improving the density and mechanical properties of the PIMed glass bodies. The mechanical and thermal behaviors of the prepared specimens are analyzed through bending tests and dilatometric analysis, respectively. After HIPing, the flexural strength of the prepared glass body reaches up to 92.17 MPa, which is 1.273 and 2.178 times that of the fused glass body and PIMed bodies, respectively. Moreover, a thermal expansion coefficient of 7.816 × 10−6/°C is obtained, which coincides with that of the raw glass powder (7.5-8.0 × 10−6/°C), indicating that the glass body is fully densified after the HIP process.
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Powder injection molding is an important manufacturing technology to mass produce superalloy components with complex shape. Injection molding step is particularly important for realizing a desired shape, which requires much time and efforts finding the optimum process condition. Therefore computer aided engineering can be very useful to find proper injection molding conditions. In this study, we have conducted a finite element method based simulation for the spiral mold test of superalloy feedstock and compared the results with experimental ones. Sensitivity analysis with both of simulation and experiment reveals that the melt temperature of superalloy feedstock is the most important factor for the full filling of mold cavity. The FEM based simulation matches well the experimental results. This study contributes to the optimization of superalloy powder injection molding process.
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The powder injection molding process having advantages in manufacturing three-dimensional precision parts essentially requires a debinding process before sintering to remove the binders used for preparing feedstock. In this study, powder injection molding of translucent alumina was performed, and carbon dioxide (CO2) is used as a supercritical fluid that makes it possible to remove a large amount of binder, which is paraffin wax. The relationship between the optical property of translucent alumina and the debinding condition (temperature and pressure) of supercritical CO2 was investigated. As temperature and pressure increased, extraction rate of the binder showed rising tendency and average grain size after sintering process was relatively fine. On the other hand, optical transmittance was reduced. As a result, the debinding condition at 50° and 20 MPa that represents the lowest extraction rate, 8.19 × 10−3 m2/sec, corresponds to the largest grain size of 14.7 μm and the highest optical transmittance of 45.2%.
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Translucent alumina is a potential candidate for high temperature application as a replacement of the glass or polymer. Recently, due to the increasing demand of high power light emitting diode (LED), there is a growing interest in the translucent alumina. Since the translucent property is very sensitive to the internal defect, such as voids inside or abnormal grain growth of sintered alumina, it is important to fabricate the defect-free product through the fabrication process. Powder injection molding (PIM) has been commonly applied for the fabrication of complex shaped products. Among the many parameters of PIM, the flowability of powder/binder mixture becomes more significant especially for the shape of the cavity with thin thickness. Two different positions of the gate were applied during PIM using the disc type of die. The binder was removed by solvent extraction method and the brown compact was sintered at 1750°C for 3 hours in a vacuum. The flowability was also simulated using moldflow (MPI 6.0) with two different types of gate. The effect of the flowability of powder/binder mixture on the microstructure of the sintered specimen was studied with the analysis of the simulation result.
Medical technologies are gaining in importance because of scientific and technical progress in medicine and the increasing average lifetime of people. This has opened up a huge market for medical devices, where complex-shaped metallic parts made from biocompatible materials are in great demand. Today many of these components are already being manufactured by powder metallurgy technologies. This includes mass production of standard products and also customized components. In this paper some aspects related to metal injection molding of Ti and its alloys as well as modifications of microstructure and surface finish were discussed. The process chain of additive manufacturing (AM) was described and the current state of the art of AM processes like Selective Laser Melting and electron beam melting for medical applications was presented.
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