The June issue of Powder Injection Moulding International includes the following special features.

Feature articles

Titanium and titanium alloys for medical applications: opportunities and challenges
Titanium parts produced by powder injection moulding are now produced by a number of companies around the world. Yet despite the current level of knowledge and the availability of powders and feedstock, penetration of the medical sector is at an early stage. Dr. Thomas Ebel, from the GKSS Forschungszentrum Geesthacht GmbH, Germany, looks at the opportunities and challenges ahead

Watch cases and bracelet parts: PIM moves upmarket
Powder injection moulding has made great strides in establishing itself as a cost-efficient manufacturing technology for innovative watch designs ranging from the everyday stainless steel watches to luxury, diamond-clad timepieces. Consulting Editor, Bernard Williams, takes a look at some recent trends.

Powder Injection Moulding in Japan: Part 2
In part two of our review of PIM in Japan we report on visits to Osaka Yakin Kogyo Co., Ltd., Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd., Taisei Kogyo Co., Ltd. and Dai-Ichi Ceramo Co., Ltd.

The potential of PIM for the manufacture of precious metal jewellery
Joe Strauss of HJE Company, Inc., Queensbury, NY, USA, discusses the factors affecting the utilisation of the powder injection moulding process (PIM) for the production of precious metal jewellery. Jewellery, defined here as objects that have no function but are purely decorative, is a potentially major market that appears to be able to use PIM’s advantages to maximum effect. Current applications and opportunities for growth are presented.

Production of fine titanium powders via the Hydride-Dehydride (HDH) process
Titanium powders have been used successfully in a wide range of near shape PM applications, and in recent years the demand for finer titanium powders for PIM applications has increased significantly. Dr Colin McCracken and Dan Barbis of Reading Alloys Inc. review the latest developments in the manufacture of finer titanium powders using the hydride-dehydride (HDH) process. They also review the impact of raw materials and particle size distribution on both the powder morphology and powder chemistry.

Philips AMS selects metal injection moulding for HID lamp electrodes
Philips Advanced Metal Solutions (Philips AMS) is specialised in the production of tungsten and molybdenum components for a wide range of applications and industries. It has historically developed various components for many lamp types, and its research into refractory metal properties has opened new avenues in automotive, medical, electronics, music and chemical industries amongst others. Frédéric Jadoul explains the successful adoption of MIM technology for tungsten HID lamp electrodes.

Looking to the future: Magnesium powder injection moulding
Dr. Norbert Hort and Dipl.-Ing. Whilst PIM of magnesium remains firmly in the realms of the laboratory, work is underway to develop the necessary technologies for the production of PIM parts. Dr. Norbert Hort and Dipl.-Ing. Martin Wolff of the Institute of Materials Research at the GKSS Research Centre, Geesthacht, Germany, present the current state of research and highlight the opportunities that the PIM of magnesium will bring.

Technical papers

A study of the effects of sintering parameters on the microstructure and properties of PIM Ti6Al4V alloy
R. Zhang, J. Kruszewski and J. Lo

The Ti6Al4V alloy evaluated in this work was fabricated by the Powder Injection Moulding (PIM) process using an elemental mixed Ti powder. Samples with a sintered density of 99.5% of its theoretical and higher were achieved by optimising the sintering conditions.......

Material homogeneity in powder injection moulded ceramic microchannel arrays
Carl Wu, Sundar V. Atre, Sachin Laddha, Shiwoo Lee, Kevin Simmons, Seong-Jin Park, Randall M. German and Donald T. Whychell, Sr.

Microsystem technology has propelled the development of micro and multi-scale manufacturing techniques for more than a decade. Among these techniques, micro powder injection moulding (micro PIM) is drawing attention recently as one of the most cost-effective processes suitable for medium and mass production of micro components such as ceramic microchannel arrays.......