Binder Jetting (BJT) is never far from the headlines in the worlds of Powder Metallurgy and Additive Manufacturing, but, whilst there has been a lot of emphasis on Binder Jetting’s build process, the crucial sintering stage has received less attention. Can we really go along with the assumption that it’s ‘just like sintering for Metal Injection Moulding’? Here, Markus Schneider and colleagues from GKN Sinter Metals Engineering GmbH, GKN Additive and Hoeganaes Corporation bring together their deep expertise in sintering to reveal just how differently metal BJT parts perform, and what implications there are for part design and future process optimisation.
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The hardmetals industry is well used to making high-performance components from metallic powders. Today it is an industry with global sales in excess of $15 billion and applications that range from cutting tool inserts to components for oil & gas, construction and beyond. The processing of hardmetals, otherwise known as cemented carbides, by Additive Manufacturing has inevitably become an area of intense activity, building, in part, on expertise from the industry’s use of MIM to deliver greater design complexity. Bernard North reports on innovations in the sinter-based AM of hardmetals presented at this year’s Plansee Seminar.
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After a four-year interruption due to COVID-19, Ceramitec, the leading trade
fair for the ceramics industry, reopened its doors at Messe München, Germany,
from June 21–24, 2022. Whilst noticeably smaller than in previous years, and
with significant gaps in the floor plan from the industrial ceramics sector, the
event appears to have been positive for the technical ceramics community.
Dr Georg Schlieper visited the exhibition for PIM International and reports
on activities of interest to users of Ceramic Injection Moulding and ceramic
Additive Manufacturing technologies.
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There can be few people in Europe’s MIM industry, if not further afield, who are unaware of Prof Dr Frank Petzoldt’s contribution to the development and promotion of the technology over more than three decades. Following his recent retirement from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, Bremen, Germany, Dr Petzoldt spoke with Dr Georg Schlieper about the past, present and future of MIM technology and shares his insight into the industry in both Europe and worldwide.
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As metal Binder Jetting (BJT) transitions from a technology for the future to a technology for now – and one that is increasingly being installed at Metal Injection Moulding producers around the world – one of the basics of the process that we can no longer avoid getting to grips with is saturation. In this article, longtime metal Binder Jetting expert Dan Brunermer, from technology consultancy B-jetting LLC, explains saturation and how to measure it, considers voxels and DPI, and finally presents control options and how choices in controls affect saturation.
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No matter which market report you choose to believe, all recent analysis of the ceramic AM market points to major growth. But this is still an emerging technology, and in terms of its commercial development, ceramic AM is said to be five years behind metal AM. Now, as global manufacturers of high-performance ceramics enter the market, an even faster acceleration in technology adoption is promised. Here, Claus Falkner, of CeramTec, a producer of technical ceramics by processes that include Ceramic Injection Moulding, explores the benefits of ceramic Binder Jetting and considers the process as a compelling solution for complex parts.
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Arburg GmbH + Co KG, Lossburg, Germany, has been working intensively
on sustainability and resource efficiency for a very long time. As the supplier
of the widely used Allrounder line of injection moulding machines, the
company is increasingly active in evaluating climate protection activities
along the entire value chain for its customers. On the basis of ISO TS
14067:2018 – a standard that defines a product’s greenhouse gas emissions
or Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) – Bertram Stern, Sustainability Manager
at Arburg, reports on how the PCF and specific energy requirements of
Arburg injection moulding machines can be calculated.
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Newcomers to Metal Injection Moulding never cease to be amazed when
they see that green parts uniformly shrink during debinding and sintering
into a finished part. This calculated shrinkage, which is what enables
products to conform to an engineer’s blueprints, can appear pretty magical.
It is, of course, simply a matter of mathematical calculation. In this article,
Dr Chiou Yau Hung (Dr Q) and James Chao, from You neeD Technology
Office, Taiwan, encourage you not be scared off by the mathematics and
discover the calculations at the heart of MIM
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There can be few Metal Injection Moulding companies which are not keeping one eye on metal Binder Jetting (BJT). This rapidly progressing Additive Manufacturing process offers the promise of tool-free, high-volume production that can leverage much of an existing MIM producer’s expertise and equipment. Indo-MIM Inc., one of the world’s largest MIM producers, with operations in India and the US, started its exploration of Binder Jetting in 2019. Here, the company’s Jag Holla shares his insight into what the company has learnt so far, and where he sees the dividing line between MIM and BJT.
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Metal Injection Moulding is a technology that, in addition to its industrial application, is widely used for the manufacture of luxury goods, from watch cases to the decorative logos for exclusive handbags. For many such applications, the value of technologies for counterfeit prevention, quality control or identification for recycling purposes is very high. Here, Erik Dietrich, Applied Research Engineer at Demcon Metal Injection Moulding, Enschede, the Netherlands, reports on an innovative solution developed with Germany’s Tailorlux GmbH that enables the integration of unique optical fingerprint technology into MIM feedstocks.
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