Fabrication of a Plate-Type Porous Stainless Steel 316L Powder Filter with Different Pore Structures without Use of a Binder

Abstract

Generally, when fabricating porous filters using metal powder, about 1 to 2 wt% of a binder is added to increase the formability of the metal powder. If the binder is not completely removed through a debinding and sintering process, however it can cause defects such as discoloration and the generation of fine particles. In this study, a study was conducted to fabricate a plate-type porous stainless steel powder filter with a different pore structure without the use of a biner. First, the metal powder is charged into a ceramic mold to form a plate-shaped powder filter, and then covered with a ceramic top plate. In order to observe the pore properties according to the pressure, the unpressurized specimen and the specimen pressurized with a pressure of 30 MPa were then sintered at 1050℃ for one hour in a high vacuum atmosphere furnace. The microstructure of the sintered plate-shaped powder filter was observed through an optical microscope and in order to analyze its pore properties as a filter, gas permeability and porosity were measured using a capillary flow porometer and Archimedes’ law.