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What’s the theoretical MIM metal powder?

The size,density and particle shape of powder is the key to decide powder whether success use to Metal MIM process.The MIM process request that the raw powder is very fine(～10μm), to ensure uniform dispersion, well rheological properties and large sintering rate. 

The theoretical MIM powder: powder size is 2～8μm;bulk density is 40%-50%;tap density is more than 50%;powder particles is nearly globose, larger than the surface.

At present,MIM metal raw material including iron, nickel,titanium,stainless steel and etc.And also it has development for  diversification,such as structure material, function material,magnetic material and so on.

The way of production MIM powder mainly have Carbonyl method , ultra-high pressure water atomization method, high pressure gas atomization, plasma atomization, and laminar atomization.The different technology of manufacture powder have different influence to powder size,particle structure,micro structure,chemical property,manufacture cost and so on.

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Powder metallurgy become the best way to produce Iron,brass base and stainless steel components

As the competition between each industry become sharper and sharper,more and more enterprises adopt powder metallurgy to produce the hardware parts,especially iron base,brass base and stainless steel material components.No matter they are customized components or general standard components,powder metallurgy is always the best produce process. Mold is essential for powder metallurgy,so customized dimension could be realized by it,it means that if other similar company want to copy the design,then more cost would be spent,in case of failure,the cost would be even higher,so few small factory would undertake this risk.After the new products were researched successfully and the market reacted well,then the production efficiency advantages would be displayed on the massive production.For some simple components with small dimension,10,000 units would be finished within the fastest 10days,what's more,the consistency of powder metallurgy components are very high and the material utilization could achieve above 98%,so it possesses the full superiorities of cost control.What'more,we could adjust the material composition according to the properties requirement of the components if adopting powder metallurgy,while it could not be achieved by other process. no2 machinary company as a large powder metallurgy factory with more than 21 expericence,as the longtime supplier of Audi/Faurecia/Honda/Dorma,etc,enjoying a good reputation on European and American market and so on.

According to the report of The Taiwan electronic times,the demand of 3C hinge  is rapidly growing.Somebody noted that if even the sells of PC is decreased year by year, but The function of the tablet and laptop combined hybrid device will be increase 13%.These mixed mode of devices have many of complex and multi-function hinge components,such as separation and rotate of screen.

Report that the MIM hinge will appear ipad Macbook  in the next generation,it will be pushing expansion the capacity of hinge manufacturer.

According to report, the hinge manufacturer ENS from Taiwan had added 6 set of sintering furnace,and also plan to add 6 sets of sinetring furnace in the next half year,until in the end of 2016 year, it will have 38 sets of sintering furnace.

Someone said that Jarllytec company from Taiwan is also constant expansion the capacity of sintering,to meet increase demand of MIM hinge.

MIM hinge was not first time to be use in 3C industry, it was use similar hinge component in early clamshell mobile phone.

[mimmetalcom]

Particularly Important for the Development of China’s MIM Industry by MIM Monographs

Driven by powder metallurgy industry, MIM technology has become more mature and stable. MIM technology includes the following aspects: feed preparation, injection molding, injection molding process simulation, degreasing, sintering, MIM application, MIM product design and specification.

Metal injection molding can be traced back to 1920s, started by ceramic spark plug powder injection molding. In subsequent decades, powder injection molding was mainly used in ceramic injection molding. Until 1979, Parmatech's metal injection molding products, formed by Wiech and his team, got two awards. At that time, Wiech and Rivers patented, powder injection molding began to shift to metal injection molding-oriented.

The development of metal powder injection molding in China is relatively late start, so the technical aspects of MIM Metal technology compared with foreign countries has not enough skill. In order to promote the research and development of MIM in China under the background of rapid development of MIM technology in the world, the monographs on the related theories of MIM technology, especially the application of MIM, are becoming more and more popular. More important.

With the expand of market, the PM and MIM parts can be used in all kinds of fields. Following the step of market, our company have done some change and got some achievements, please see the below info:

Material 

In recently months, our factory has successfully developed the performance of 17-4PH material.Before,the hardness of 17-4Ph only achieved 35-40HRC and the performance was not good. Now, the hardness can achieved 43-48HRC and the abrasive resistance will better than before. These items are used in military industry and the requests was very strict, and we can meet all of requests.

Equipment

Our MIM department have bought 7 sets of new furnance with performance of expand our production ability, the brand of sintering furnance is Meige.Now, our MIM annual output can achieve about 30 million and we have build a new MIM factory in this year.

Our PM department also imported a new press machine which made in Swiss. Our mostly of PM are automobile parts, and also we have passed BorgWarner factory-examining, it was very excited for us. In this year, the annual output of PM have about 60 million and our new PM factory will enter production in Jiangxi province.

[mimmetalcom]

Metal Injection Molding technology promotes the development of medical devices

The quality of the medical devices products is determined by the level of the mold, so it takes a lot of cost and time for many metal manufacturers to finish by using other conventional technology usually. For this, a company in USA developed a set of solution which is adopt the Metal Injection Molding technology to achieve the required surface smoothness of the parts.It means the feed stock (the mixture of metal powder and binder )would into the mold cavity by injection machine, then the green part would be formed. By debinding and sintering ,high density and superior mechanical properties would be realized. As the parts are most close to the final products,so the secondary process and cost would be reduced. Overseas market has run through 3D Metal Injection Molding technology which can help the medical devices manufacturers to expand the market rapidly and 70% cost would be saved. With the mim advantages of low cost, simpleness, the parts with close texture,proportional structure, superior mechanical properties, high precision and strict tolerance can be achieved by Metal Injection Molding technology. So more medical devices with high performance and quality will be appeared on the MIM industrial production area in the near future.

Our Metal Injection Molding process is unique for several reasons.

Our Equipment.

Conventional injection molding presses receive a series of proprietary processing modifications.  This configuration moderates capital costs, provides production flexibility, and delivers short cycle times.

Our Tooling.

Standard hardened steel injection molds are used, providing longer tool life than metal die-casting molds.  Existing molds designed and built for plastic parts can be modified for use as Metal Injection Molding molds.

Secondary Operations.

After part degating, there are no costly machining operations to achieve required tolerances.  Parts come out of the mold to final tolerance.

The Material Performance.

The steel alloy has thermal transfer, strength and weight properties desirable to many advanced applications.  Parts molded from Sints™ readily accept a wide range of coatings, plating and finishes.

Green Environmental.

The Metal Injection Molding process uses significantly less energy than conventional die-casting followed by secondary machining.  Also, our company scrap and runners are fully recyclable.

[mimmetalcom]

Effects of Metal Powders and Manufacturing Methods on MIM

MIM is a new metal forming technology combining traditional powder metallurgy and modern plastic injection molding technology. MIM process has strict standards on the choice of metal powder. This is because the shape of powder particles decides the quality of products.

Good metal feed can form a good product, and good powder will be a good metal feed, which means that the metal powder affects the performance of MIM products. So what is a good metal powder?

After years of production practice and industry experts, the theoretical study found that the more granular, uniform particles, close to the spherical powder particles more suitable for the manufacture of feed. The feed made of such powder is good for process liquidity and conducive to the successful completion of the entire MIM process. What is more, it is easy to debonding, during which the blank in the sintering process of shrink uniformly with small degree.

But in the actual production, due to cost, technology and other factors, metal powder raw materials which used to produce the feed are not in “perfect state". Even the impeccable powdery raw materials that we consider perfect will inevitably affect the effect of the MIM forming process because the shape of the parts is not easily maintained. For example, the steel metal powder which be used in MIM process although is spherical, and particle size meet the technical requirements, because of the small bite force between the particles, the product shape is difficult to maintain.

So if we want to get stable performance and shape of the products, we need to think about other ways. The current metal powder used in manufacture of metal feed is generally divided into two types: aerosolized powder and water atomized powder. These two kinds of powder shape properties are different, with only one of which cannot get a good feed.

Adding water atomized powder to aerosolized powder can improve the shape maintaining ability and decrease the anisotropy shrinkage of the injection molding. If the natural slope angle of the mixed powder is small, the interaction between the particles is small, and the anisotropy shrinkage of the component after sintering is large. Samples with more aerosolized powder are easy to collapse after debonding. Using water atomized powder can maintain the shape without damaging its mechanical properties. The irregular shape of the particles affects the sinter ability of the mixed powder, and the use of a large proportion of the water atomized powder promotes densification.

In summary, the impact of metal powder particle shape in the MIM process is rooted. To choose the metal feed made of appropriate metal powder is essential to the formation of high-quality MIM products.