Industry retains positive outlook despite the financial crisis  

Welcome to the December 2011 issue of PIM International. Since our last issue a record number of participants from around the world came together for the Euro PM2011 Conference and Exhibition, October 10-12, Barcelona.

Despite the international debt crisis and turmoil in the financial markets, the event had an upbeat air, with PIM producers and suppliers reporting on good growth during 2011 and offering a positive outlook for the year ahead.  
What helps to support this positive mood is, in part, down to the potential of PIM technology to thrive in new markets, as well as to further strengthen its position in existing ones. MicroPIM is without doubt one of the most promising sub-sectors of PIM to watch. As is demonstrated in the second part of our MicroPIM review, the diverse capabilities of the process make it the most credible route for the manufacture of high volume, high performance metal and ceramic micro components (page 25).

In this issue we also report on MIM at ITB Precisietechniek, a Dutch producer that has for many years been at the forefront of the commercial production of MIM titanium components (page 33).

The commercial development of Ti-MIM is, to a great extent, thanks to the availability of Ti powders specifically tailored for the MIM process. Canada’s AP&C Raymor is today the leader in this market and in this issue the company gives an insight into their powder production process and ambitions for the future (Page 55).

We also present three technical papers that reflect the potential of PIM to diversify into new markets, from the processing of barium titanate for microwell arrays (page 59) to Ni-Ti “shape memory effect” alloys (page 66) and ultrafine W-10%Cu powders (page 74). 

Nick Williams
Managing Director and Editor 

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