Citation:
Journal of Materials Processing Technology (2014). 214(2), 436-444.
ISSN:
0924-0136
DOI:
10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2013.09.014
Sponsor:
The authors wish to thank GUZMÁN GLOBAL S.L. and MIMTECH ALFA for their collaboration on the ECOPIM project (Ref. IPT-2011-0931-20000) that was funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness. Furthermore, the authors would like to acknowledge the strong support from the ESTRUMAT projects (Ref. S2009/MAT-1585), which were funded by the CAM Consejería Educación Dir. Gral. Universidades e Investigación, and from the COMETAS project (Ref. MAT2009/14448-C02-02), which was funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness.
A water soluble binder system based on cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) is proposed and investigated to carry out a micro powder injection moulding (muPIM) process with an Invar 36 alloy powders. The overall process was optimised A water soluble binder system based on cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) is proposed and investigated to carry out a micro powder injection moulding (muPIM) process with an Invar 36 alloy powders. The overall process was optimised with an emphasis on the determination of the optimal solid loading. Several methodologies were evaluated and compared to determine this parameter. A full muPIM was performed with different powder content feedstocks. Dog bone-type micro test parts were fabricated thereof and their mechanical properties were evaluated. Solid loadings up to 65 vol.% resulted to have the most equilibrated properties to successfully fabricate Invar 36 micro parts with the selected powder and binder system.[+][-]