Since the very first PM Titanium conference in Brisbane, Australia, in 2011, the PMTi series has been the essential meeting point where technical and commercial advances in the powder-based production of titanium parts are discussed. Encompassing production technologies from Metal Injection Molding to Additive Manufacturing, this year’s event was no different. As Dr Thomas Ebel reports, the technologies involved have moved significantly towards production readiness, but with the ever-present playoff of non-negotiable performance goals against the drive to reduce cost.
... Read more »
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.
... Read more »
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.
... Read more »
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.
... Read more »
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.
... Read more »
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.
... Read more »
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
... Read more »
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.
... Read more »
The combination of generative and algorithmic design with Additive Manufacturing is opening up a new world of opportunity for ceramics. Whilst Ceramic Injection Moulding has, until now, been the manufacturing process that offered the greatest level of design freedom for industrial production, ceramic AM now brings a level of freedom to produce complex structures that go far beyond what can be moulded. Prof Alberto Ortona, from the Hybrid Materials Laboratory at University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), explores ceramic Binder Jetting, the opportunities that it presents, and its current limitations.
... Read more »
The ability of Metal Injection Molding to efficiently manufacture complex stainless steel components to net shape has enabled it to become a go-to technology for sectors such as watchmaking, luxury goods and medical devices. However, the challenge of meeting the growing demand for nickel-free stainless steels presents a number of challenges for MIM producers. In this article, Pierre Girin and Jean-Claude Bihr, from France’s Alliance MIM, review these challenges and share insight into the processing of a material class that holds great promise for the industry.
... Read more »
Join our community