Powder Injection Moulding International, the magazine for the Metal Injection Moulding (MIM) and Ceramic Injection Moulding (CIM) industries, is now available for the first time as a free digital download.

Launched in 2007, the quarterly PIM International magazine quickly established itself as the essential publication for those involved in MIM and CIM worldwide thanks to high quality editorial content that ranges from technology developments and application reviews to company profiles, industry news and technical papers.

Nick Williams, Managing Director of Inovar Communications Ltd and Editor of PIM International, stated, “The decision to make PIM International available as a free digital publication will further broaden our readership within the PIM industry, and serve to promote MIM and CIM technology to the end-user communities worldwide.”

“Despite the rapid and ongoing growth in the industry, there remains a serious lack of awareness about the capability of the technology amongst many design engineers. PIM International provides a window into the industry. Since our launch in 2007 our subscription base has grown every year and we will continue to serve subscribers with a high quality print edition of our magazine.”

Powder Injection Moulding (PIM), which encompasses Metal Injection Moulding and Ceramic Injection Moulding is a major manufacturing technology with estimated global sales of more than $1.5 billion. Asia is the world’s largest PIM producing region, followed by Europe and North America. MIM accounts for around 90% of the market for PIM products, which as a whole is seeing annual growth of between 10-20% worldwide.

Many objects we encounter in everyday life including surgical instruments, dental brackets, cars, mobile phones, watches, computers, firearms, domestic appliances, cameras and power tools contain PIM parts, to name just a few markets.

The 80 page June 2014 issue of PIM International (Vol. 8 No. 2), which is now available for download from www.pim-international.com/magazine, includes a profile on one of the world’s largest MIM parts producers, ARCMIM, as well as articles on managing quality in the MIM process chain, innovations in the processing of titanium MIM parts and advances in the production of aluminium MIM:

In this issue:

Managing quality in the complete Metal Injection Moulding process chain

To produce high quality MIM components in production volumes with a low rejection rate a comprehensive understanding of the whole production process is required, along with the establishment of an appropriate quality monitoring system. Throughout the MIM process chain, from powder to finished parts, there are a number of areas where it is possible for small changes to directly influence manufacturing tolerances and material properties. In this article Prof. Dr. Ing. Frank Petzoldt looks at the influence of powder, feedstock, injection moulding, debinding and sintering as well as supporting technologies such as mould filling simulation and HIP on the quality of MIM parts.

ARC Group Worldwide, Inc.: A global leader in MIM embraces the Additive Manufacturing revolution

In 2012 a new global force in Metal Injection Moulding was created when ARC Group Worldwide, Inc. (ARC) acquired Advanced Forming Technology, Inc. (AFT) and FloMet LLC to create one of the world’s largest MIM businesses. ARC has since moved to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of its MIM business, as well as enhancing its customer offering by embracing Additive Manufacturing. PIM International’s Nick Williams profiles the business and outlines the strategic vision behind the developments at ARC Group to-date.

Is MIM just too good? High part-to-part consistency challenges forensic firearms examiners

A keynote presentation at the MIM 2014 Conference, Long Beach, California, February 24–26 2014, reviewed how MIM’s excellent part to part consistency is posing new challenges for forensic firearms examiners. Detective Darin Marcinkiewicz, St. Louis County Police Department, Missouri, USA, in his presentation “Forensic Challenges Attributable to MIM Part-to-Part Consistency” introduced the science of firearm forensics and explained how the manufacture of firing pins by the MIM process has impacted on the effectiveness of forensic examinations. Nick Williams reviews the presentation for PIM International.

Praxis Technology: Enhancements to Ti-MIM processing bring medical implants a step closer

Praxis Technology, a US-based manufacturer focused exclusively on titanium products has made substantial progress in the area of titanium Metal Injection Moulding (Ti-MIM). In this article Joe Grohowski and Jobe Piemme provide an insight into the capability and performance of Praxis’ validated Ti-MIM process in relation to ASTM F2885, as well as additional technologies that have been developed to enhance Ti-MIM’s applicability to the orthopaedic market and other markets demanding high fatigue performance.

Metal Injection Moulding (MIM) of titanium and titanium hydride reviewed at PM Titanium 2013

The second International Titanium Powder Processing, Consolidation and Metallurgy Conference took place in Hamilton, New Zealand, from December 2-4 2013. The event, organised by the Titanium Industry Development Association, New Zealand, in partnership with the University of Waikato, CSIRO and GNS Science, attracted over 80 participants from around the world to discuss the latest advances in titanium Powder Metallurgy. Prof Ma Qian of RMIT University (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) reports on selected MIM highlights from the technical programme.

Aluminium MIM: New advanced powders and feedstocks achieve higher densities

Whist conventional Powder Metallurgy aluminium parts are today processed in high volumes for established end-user industries, aluminium has not yet become established as an accepted material for MIM. There is, however, growing interest in combining the unique properties of aluminium with the ability of MIM to process large volumes of highly complex components. In this paper Jessu Joys, Rhonda Kasler and Clive Ramsey, United States Metal Powders, Inc., report on the testing of a new commercially available MIM feedstock based on a specially developed fine inert gas atomised aluminium powder.

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