SCF Industry Uses
Metal Injection Moulding
Metal Injection Moulding
Fast removal of binders.
Metal injection moulding, or MIM, is a manufacturing process which combines the versatility of plastic injection moulding with the strength and integrity of machined, pressed or otherwise manufactured small, complex, metal parts. The process involves combining fine metal powders with binders which allow the metal to be injected into a mould using standard plastic injection moulding machines.
After the part is moulded and before the binders are removed, the part is referred to as a 'green part'. The next step is to remove the primary binder. The resultant metal part, ‘brown part’, is sintered at temperatures great enough to bind the particles but not melt the metal and deforming the part. The products of metal injection moulding are up to 98% as dense as wrought metal and used in an increasingly broad range of applications. The advantage of metal injection moulded parts is that very complex parts that are difficult or even impossible to otherwise fabricate can be manufactured in large quantities.
Advantages of Debinding with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide
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Traditional debinding methods such as thermal debinding, water solubilisation, solvent solubilisation and catalytic debinding are all environmentally unfriendly due to the high VOC emissions. They also have excessively long debinding times.
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Advantages of debinding with supercritical carbon dioxide;
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- Faster debinding
- Since the debinding is faster, larger parts can be economically fabricated
- Because supercritical carbon dioxide, unlike a liquid, has no surface tension, it permeates deeper into the part and dissolves the primary binder quicker and more completely
- Environmentally friendly
- No VOC emissions
- No prohibition by environmental legislations
- No increase in greenhouse gases. The supercritical debinding uses existing CO2, no additional CO2 is created.
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