Opportunities for producing dimensionally enhanced powder-injection-molded parts

Abstract

During the recent decades, powder injection molding has achieved a significant position as a manufacturing technique for high value-add products. For further progress, the improved dimensional accuracy of the sintered parts is of considerable importance. Investigations into meeting this demand through an enhanced process conduct comprising an additional compression step after cavity filling were performed. To achieve improved cavity filling and investigate influencing parameters, a demonstrator design was developed which enabled the generation of thin membranes by controlled piston movements. The combined injection and embossing process reached replication accuracies of ±0.15 to ±0.4%. An interaction between membrane quality and the compression parameters could be asserted. Moreover, the additional compaction step allowed for reduction of the minimum membrane values to about half of the thicknesses feasible by unmodified PIM processes.