Metal powder injection molding combines the advantages of powder metallurgy and plastic injection molding, breaking through the limitations of traditional metal powder molding technology in product shape, and using plastic injection molding technology to produce large-scale and high-efficiency plastics with complex shapes. Parts: such as various external grooves, external threads, tapered outer surfaces, cross holes, blind holes, recesses, key pins, rib plates, surface knurling, etc. are the strengths of the MIM process.
How to decide whether a product should choose MIM process, examples of MIM parts that show geometrical characteristics that are beneficial to production currently have the following main issues;
For parts with very high material loss and very time-consuming processing in cutting and grinding, MIM has great advantages in reducing production costs; mold costs and R&D costs are unbearable for low-demand products. . Therefore, when the annual demand of the product reaches a certain amount, the MIM process can be considered. In terms of materials, the MIM process is a near-net-shape technology. MIM is the most attractive for parts designed from difficult and easy-to-cut materials such as titanium, stainless steel and nickel alloys. It is also extremely suitable for multi-axis parts and multi-reference parts that need to change many processing stations. MIM is also suitable for some high-density products. If the performance is required, the performance of MIM's high-density formation is extremely competitive; in terms of accuracy requirements, the tolerance of MIM sintered parts is about ±0.3%, if the product requires The tolerances of MIM sintered parts are very strict, and MIM sintered parts need secondary processing, such as CNC, CNC lathe, etc. The cost of MIM tends to increase. In this case, it is necessary to evaluate and compare. Of course, the MIM process also has some defects, which must be made inherent in MIM. The defects are in non-critical locations, or can be removed after fabrication, such as gate footprints, thimble footprints or bond lines.
MIM can also produce novel composite materials that are difficult to manufacture by traditional processes, such as laminated or two-material structures or hybrid metal-ceramic materials for wear resistance.
A variety of materials are available for MIM, but a few are predominant. Materials that are difficult to machine, such as tool steel, titanium, and stainless steel, are most beneficial for final MIM forming, which can form complex geometric features in one pass.
