High Quality Metal Powder Application in Injection Molding and Additive Manufacturing

Powder metallurgy is a processing method that uses metal powder as raw material and forms various products through pressing and sintering. It has the ability to form the final shape of the parts and high material utilization. Therefore, it is recognized as an excellent production technology that can produce high-quality sintered structural parts for a large number of applications in different industries.

High-quality sintered Powder metallurgy structural parts

Powder metallurgy includes various processes, among which metal injection molding technology (MIM) can produce products with small size, three-dimensional complex shape and special performance requirements that traditional powder metallurgy processes cannot meet, effectively reducing the production cost of complex metal structural parts, as well as better strength, toughness and wear resistance of the finished product, and higher raw material utilization, which has been valued by the powder metallurgy industry.

Latest  Metal Injection Molding Technology

Metal powder injection molding technology is completely different from ordinary molding process. It is not difficult to manufacture parts with complex geometry, high performance and high precision in large quantities, which promotes the breakthrough progress of MIM manufacturers in production.

In the metal powder injection molding process, powder metallurgy manufacturers not only need to prepare the corresponding powder for processing, but also need to add more binder in the powder. Therefore, both the powder and the binder must meet the requirements, otherwise it will affect the forming of powder metallurgy products.

Among them, the powder should use 10 m ultra-fine near-spherical powder, from mixing to degreasing sintering process is complex, process requirements are strict, especially degreasing sintering time is long, which is the main reason for the high manufacturing cost of powder metallurgy manufacturers. The binder must be sufficient, otherwise it is difficult to achieve the corresponding performance.

For this reason, powder metallurgy manufacturers have developed a simplified method, that is, flow hot pressing technology, which combines the advantages of metal powder injection molding technology on the basis of metal powder hot pressing; then by adding an appropriate amount of coarse and fine powder, and increasing the content of thermoplastic lubricant, the fluidity, filling and formability of the mixed powder are greatly improved.

Because the mixed powder becomes a viscous fluid with good fluidity in the pressing process, it not only has the advantages of liquid, but also has high viscosity, reduces friction force, makes the pressing pressure evenly distributed in the powder, and transfers well. Because of this, the powder can flow to every corner without cracks in the pressing process, thus greatly improving the density.

At present, powder metallurgy manufacturers have extended this technology to precisely form very complex shaped workpieces on traditional tablet presses. It not only overcomes the shortcomings of traditional cold pressing in forming complex geometric shapes, but also avoids the high cost of metal injection molding technology.

Metal 3D printing Introduction

Metal 3D printing, as the most promising manufacturing method in the field of powder metallurgy, has also developed rapidly due to its high comprehensive utilization of materials; no need for mold opening, few manufacturing processes, and short cycle; manufacturing complex parts (such as internal shaped channels); free design according to mechanical performance requirements, regardless of manufacturing process and other advantages, has been widely used in various fields of daily life.

At present, metal 3D printing and metal injection molding are known as "the most advanced manufacturing technologies". Powder metallurgy technologies represented by these two are increasingly applied to high-end fields such as aerospace, medical, electronics, military and so on. Metal powders with high purity, good sphericity, narrow particle size distribution and low oxygen content have become the new development direction of the industry. They have a crucial impact on the quality of metal products.