Evaluation and analysis of distortion during MIM process of titanium alloy materials - 2nd report -

The use of titanium alloy component in automotive applications can lead to weight reduction and functional development such as life time, corrosion resistance as well. Metal Injection Molding (MIM) offers an efficient way to fabricate more complex shaped components of titanium alloys. However, MIM process is mostly applied for small parts. Fabrication of larger parts by MIM process is limited because much binder contain in MIM green parts makes it difficult to remove the binders without distortion or defects. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of processing parameters on the distortion of larger size specimen than usual MIM components. Specimens with different diameter and thickness were injection molded and especially the effect of thermal debinding conditions on the distortion was investigated in detail. Thick specimens needed slow thermal debinding heating rate to minimize the distortion. Moreover, distortion in MIM process was considered and it was clarified that the distortion after solvent debinding was bigger than other process, thus, the debinding condition was most important to control the distortion.