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Vacuum Heat Treatment Furnace

Vacuum Sintering Furnace

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Production Process of Stainless Steel Powder for Metal Injection Molding

Metal injection molding technology is developed from powder injection molding technology of ceramic parts, and it is a new type of powder metallurgy near-net forming technology. The main production steps of metal injection molding technology are as follows: metal powder and binder mixing – granulation – injection molding – degreasing – sintering – subsequent processing – final product The technology is suitable for mass production, high performance, Small-sized powder metallurgy parts with complex shapes, such as those used in the Swiss watch industry to produce watch parts.

MIM technology is developing rapidly, and the material systems that can be applied include: Fe-Ni alloy, stainless steel, tool steel, high specific gravity alloy, cemented carbide, titanium alloy, nickel-based superalloy, intermetallic compound, alumina, zirconia, etc. Metal injection molding technology requires the powder particle size to be below the micron level and the shape to be nearly spherical. In addition, there are certain requirements for powder bulk density, tap density, powder aspect ratio, natural slope angle and particle size distribution. At present, the main methods of producing powder for metal injection molding technology are: water atomization method, gas atomization method, and carbonyl method. Commonly used powder grades for stainless steel metal injection are: 304L, 316L, 317L, 410L, 430L, 434L, 440A, 440C, 17-4PH, etc.

Metal powder debinding and sintering furnaces are commonly used in metal powder injection molding production. The structure of the existing metal powder degreasing and sintering furnace mainly includes a furnace body provided with a degreasing pipeline and a degreasing box arranged in the furnace body. It is extracted from the degreasing port through the degreasing pipeline, which can avoid the contamination of the furnace body by lipid substances. When cleaning, only the degreasing box needs to be cleaned. The lipid substances in the product are mainly molding agents. The disadvantage of the existing metal powder degreasing and sintering furnace is that the degreasing cannot be completed at one time, and the first degreasing rate is low, that is, in addition to the first degreasing that is drawn out through the degreasing pipeline, the lipid substances often require a second degreasing, that is, opening the furnace body and aligning the furnace body again. For degreasing and cleaning, the operation is complicated and the processing efficiency is low.