The winners of the 2025 Powder Metallurgy Design Excellence Awards competition, sponsored by the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF), have been announced at PowderMet2025 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

This year’s winners are said to demonstrate the best examples of diversities in the Powder Metallurgy industry, showcasing high-performance components capable of meeting ever critical requirements.

Also presented at the event were the earlier-announced Distinguished Service Awards and the APMI Fellows for 2025.

The following are prizes presented in the Metal Injection Moulding category. Winners in the Conventional PM category can be seen here, and winners of the Metal Additive Manufacturing, here:

Grand Prize Awards

Automotive Electric Vehicle Category for MIM

Winner: Hangzhou Sino-MIM Technology Co. Ltd. – Hangzhou, China

Component: MIM-316L stainless steel grounding diaphragm bracket that supports structural parts for optical lenses inside an automotive LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) unit

This part has relatively high requirements for the overall dimensional accuracy, the edge chamfering, and the flatness of the product. Experience gained during the development of this product is reported to have helped with the creation of similar frame-structured parts.

Military/Firearms Category for MIM

Winner: ARC Group Worldwide – Denver, Colorado, USA

Component: A pistol slide that encapsulates the barrel of the pistol and pushes the hammer back into the ready-to-fire position after every shot of the firearm

The complex part went through a successful 20,000 shot trial firing test for qualification, with tested parts X-rayed at several intervals to ensure they were acceptable. Most slides are produced by machining forged blanks, which leads to considerable material waste. The MIM process allows features such as ribs and logos to be molded and enables minimal machining waste.

Electronic/Electrical Components Category for MIM

Winner: Hangzhou Sino-MIM Technology

Component: Copper alloy optical module housing used for efficient heat dissipation

The heat generated by the components inside the product needs to be dissipated through the housing. The part is made from a proprietary copper-based alloy. The finished product has relatively high requirements for surface flatness and roughness, and secondary CNC machining is necessary.

More than 55% cost saving can reportedly be achieved by MIM processing compared with machining wrought or cast materials.

Hand Tools/Recreation Category for MIM

Winner: ARC Group Worldwide

Component: Knife blade used in a consumer pocketknife

The critical requirements for this part were a hardness of 60 HRC or greater, an impact toughness equivalent to a machined billet, and straightness. By using a high carbon alloy steel in a MIM process, it was possible to mold features such as the hollow grind blade geometry in the as-molded state for the first time, thereby eliminating significant complex grinding and machining operations. MIM processing reduces material waste significantly.

Hardware/Appliances Category for MIM

Winner: INDO-MIM LIMITED – Bangalore, India

Component: Pocket and keeper module parts for caravan door hinges

The parts are made from a niobium-stabilised austenitic chromium-nickel stainless steel. The pocket and keeper modules are essential parts, ensuring smooth door operation by securing the hinge pin in place. The components work together to provide reliable long-lasting performance in all conditions.

Compared with casting, MIM offers significant cost saving, faster production, and fewer manufacturing steps, reducing waste, production time, and costs.

Medical/Dental Category for MIM

Winner: INDO-MIM

Component: A-to-Z expander assembly used in dental orthodontic treatment and sleep apnoea

The palatal expander widens a narrow palatal arch, helping to normalise the shape of the palate and promote nasal cavity expansion. This allows better airflow through the nose. Seven intricate MIM stainless steel parts are assembled to make the expander.

MIM processing simplifies the production process and reduces material waste.

Awards of Distinction

Automotive—Chassis Category for MIM

Winner: INDO-MIM

Component: ASV top plate used in a vehicle suspension sub-assembly

The part is quite complex, featuring a circular shape with thirty narrow through slots around the edge and five rib-like structures that connect to a central hole. MIM processing resulted in a 40% cost reduction compared with the machining and wire cutting previously used.

MIM is an excellent choice for making 120,000 parts annually while minimising material waste.

Military/Firearms Category for MIM

Winner: Advanced Powder Products, Inc – Philipburg, Pennsylvania

Component: Sear housing block used in a pistol firearm

There are numerous blind and through holes, all held to tight tolerances for position and depth, and thin walls that form functional features where subsurface defects are not acceptable. X-ray scanning was used to verify that the parts were free of subsurface defects.

CNC machining of the part was not cost effective for the desired volumes or the requested speed to market.

Medical/Dental Category for MIM

Winner: Hangzhou Sino-MIM Technology

Component: Anvil of an endoscopic stapler used for tissue resection and anastomosis in thoracic and abdominal surgical operations

The stapler uses titanium staples to cut off or anastomose tissues. It is said to be quick and easy to use and greatly shortens operation times. The parts are made from stainless steel and are nickel-Teflon plated to meet biocompatibility requirements.

Redesigning the machined parts that required extensive processing to MIM resulted in a 50% cost reduction.

Electronic/Electrical Components Category for MIM

Winner: Hangzhou Sino-MIM Technology

Component: ALN heatsink

This part is made from aluminium nitride and is very brittle. The part is used in the silicon photonics optical module for optical communication. A large number of heat-generating components are surface-mounted on the product, which not only serves as the mounting substrate but also plays a role in heat conduction and dissipation. Surface finish and tight tolerances on flatness and parallelism are among the part requirements.

Electronic/Electrical Components Category for MIM

Winner: Hangzhou Sino-MIM Technology

Component: MIM-17-4 PH stainless steel middle plate used in the hinge of the folding screen of a mobile phone

The middle plate connects multiple mechanical devices and serves as the core part of the folding screen’s mechanical rotating part. The parts are processed by high-precision equipment to ensure the dimensional accuracy. The thinnest part is only 0.3 mm (0.012 inch) thick.

Sinter-based Additive Manufacturing

Grand Prize Awards

Electronic/Electrical Components Category for Metal AM

Winner: 3DEO, Inc

Component: Copper heat sink used in semiconductor manufacturing

The heat sink’s complex lattice design was developed in conjunction with the customer to maximise heat transfer efficiency while maintaining compatibility with Additive Manufacturing. The design is entirely self-supported during manufacturing, eliminating the need for build supports, and is optimised for automated de-powdering. This critical component is HIP processed to achieve 99.9% relative density, critical for pure copper applications.

Awards of Distinction

Hand Tools/Recreation Category for Metal AM

Winner: Nichols Portland Inc, NPI–MIM/MAM Division

Component: Bar and yoke banjo capo assembly for Paige Musical Products

A capo is used to temporarily shorten the strings on a banjo, raising the pitch of the unfretted or ‘open’ strings and changing the key of the open-position chords. The two parts are made from stainless steel and used in the as-built-and-sintered condition with no secondary processing.

The metal AM parts provide a 50% cost reduction compared with traditionally machined components.

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