The metal powder injection molding (MIM) process has been widely used in various industries in recent years due to its outstanding advantages in producing small and complex-shaped parts. However, for relatively large-sized and thick-walled metal products, they have not been widely used due to the problems of forming and degreasing. However, for some products, we can improve and improve the mechanical properties of the products by strengthening sintering technology, thereby breaking through the size range limitations of MIM process processing and further improving the market competitiveness of MIM products.
Metal injection molded parts have advantages such as excellent density, high surface finish and good mechanical properties. The scope of application has gradually expanded, and its products have also begun to develop from small and micro to large sizes.
The thickness of metal injection molded parts is mostly below 10mm, and the size of complex-shaped parts currently used in the market is mostly 20mm-30mm. If the size limitation of the single weight of the parts is broken, the market share of metal injection molded parts will be further increased.
It is understood that Japan, India, the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries have successively conducted research on large-size parts with this technology and achieved relatively satisfactory results. Among them, the United States solved the degreasing problem of thick-walled and large-sized metal injection molded parts with a unit weight of about 2KG in the 1990s.
In recent years, the research on large-sized metal injection molded parts in China has continued to be hot, and after people’s research, 2Kg metal parts have overcome technical difficulties and achieved mass production, but the disadvantage is low output. It is understood that the largest metal injection parts in China have reached 4Kg, but due to slow degreasing and high production costs, this product is only used in special fields such as aviation.
The successful technical research of large-sized MIM products has led to a continuous increase in the market share of metal injection molded parts. Although the application scope of large-sized MIM products such as those above 2Kg is still small, we believe that with the increasing market demand for large-sized MIM products and people’s further research on MIM, in the future when the technology is increasingly mature, the application scope of large-sized metal injection molded parts will gradually expand. The mass production of large-sized/super-large-sized MIM parts is an important research topic facing many MIM manufacturers and MIM technology researchers.