Effect of Thermal Debinding Conditions on the Sintered Density of Low-Pressure Powder Injection Molded Iron Parts

Optimizing metal part distortion in the material extrusion-thermal debinding-sintering process: An experimental and numerical study

The thermal debinding-sintering process plays an essential role in the context of material extrusion-based additive manufacturing (AM) for producing parts using metal injection molding (MIM). During thermal debinding, metal parts often experience material distortion and porosity, which negatively impacts their mechanical properties. Slowing down the debinding speed is a common approach to mitigate material distortion and porosity. However, this leads to a significant increase in the debinding time. In this study, we carried out debinding-sintering experiments to optimize the distortion and porosity in metal parts. These metal parts were manufactured utilizing bronze/polylactide (PLA) blend filaments and placed in crucibles of different sizes (small, medium, and large), with different heating rates and holding times. The results revealed that the small crucible yielded higher porosity levels in the metal parts, which could be reduced from 23% to 12% by extending both the heating and holding times. In contrast, the medium crucible managed to reduce porosity to approximately 15% without requiring an extension of the processing time. The large crucible, on the other hand, couldn't achieve further porosity reduction due to challenges in reaching the desired temperature. To gain a deeper insight into temperature distribution during the debinding process, we performed numerical simulations using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique and obtained temperature profiles within the kiln using the three crucibles. Ultimately, we carried out standard mechanical tests on the resulting metal parts and evaluated the thermal debinding procedure under various conditions. The approach we employed, combining experiments and numerical simulations, demonstrated significant promise for enhancing the quality of metal parts in the thermal debinding-sintering process.

Research Progress on Low-Pressure Powder Injection Molding

Powder injection molding (PIM) is a well-known technique to manufacture net-shaped, complicated, macro or micro parts employing a wide range of materials and alloys. Depending on the pressure applied to inject the feedstock, this process can be separated into low-pressure (LPIM) and high-pressure (HPIM) injection molding. Although the LPIM and HPIM processes are theoretically similar, all steps have substantial differences, particularly feedstock preparation, injection, and debinding. After decades of focusing on HPIM, low-viscosity feedstocks with improved flowability have recently been produced utilizing low-molecular-weight polymers for LPIM. It has been proven that LPIM can be used for making parts in low quantities or mass production. Compared to HPIM, which could only be used for the mass production of metallic and ceramic components, LPIM can give an outstanding opportunity to cover applications in low or large batch production rates. Due to the use of low-cost equipment, LPIM also provides several economic benefits. However, establishing an optimal binder system for all powders that should be injected at extremely low pressures (below 1 MPa) is challenging. Therefore, various defects may occur throughout the mixing, injection, debinding, and sintering stages. Since all steps in the process are interrelated, it is important to have a general picture of the whole process which needs a scientific overview. This paper reviews the potential of LPIM and the characteristics of all steps. A complete academic and research background survey on the applications, challenges, and prospects has been indicated. It can be concluded that although many challenges of LPIM have been solved, it could be a proper solution to use this process and materials in developing new applications for technologies such as additive manufacturing and processing of sensitive alloys.

Experimental Study on Metal Parts under Variable 3D Printing and Sintering Orientations Using Bronze/PLA Hybrid Filament Coupled with Fused Filament Fabrication

Producing metal parts from Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printing coupled with a metal/polymer hybrid filament, considering the advantages of high-performance and low cost, has generated considerable research interest recently. This paper addresses the studied relationship between variable printing/sintering directions and the properties of the sintered metal parts. It was shown that the printing directions played a significant role in determining the properties of final products, such as shrinkage, tensile stress, and porosity. The shrinkage in the layer direction because of anisotropic behavior is more minor than in the other dimensions. The microstructural analysis indicated that the printing directions had influenced the form and position of porosity on the produced metal parts. Most porosities occurred on the surfaces printed parallel to the printing bed. Furthermore, the sintering orientations had no possible benefits for dimension shrinkage, weight shrinkage, density, and porosity position of produced metal parts. However, the sintering direction “upright” resulted in parting lines inside the sintered tensile samples and made them fragile. The best printing-sintering combination was “on-edge-flat”.

Structure and Properties of Co-Cr-Mo Alloy Manufactured by Powder Injection Molding Method

Cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloys samples were obtained by the powder injection molding method (PIM). PIM is dedicated to the mass production of components and can manufacture several grades of dental screws, bolts, stabilizers, or implants. As a skeleton component, ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA copolymer) with a low temperature of processing and softening point was used. The choice of a low-temperature binder made it necessary to use a coarse ceramic powder as a mechanical support of the green sample during sintering. The injection-molded materials were thermally degraded in N2 or Ar-5%H2 and further sintered in N2-5%H2 or Ar-5%H2 at 1300 or 1350 °C for 30 min. The structure of the obtained samples was characterized by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. Mechanical properties, including hardness and three-point bending tests, confirmed that a nitrogen-rich atmosphere significantly increases the bending strength compared to the material manufactured in Ar-5%H2. This is due to the precipitation of numerous fine nitrides and intermetallic phases that strengthen the ductile γ-phase matrix.