The History
The technology of powder injection molding was invented more than half a century ago. However, the application of this technology to injection molding metals started as recent as early 80s. In fact the successful commercial manufacturing employing powder injection molding technology only began some ten years ago.
Integrated with the shaping capability of plastic injection molding and the material flexibility of the conventional powder metallurgy, the hybrid technology. Metal Injection Molding (MIM) moulds metal or ceramic powders just like plastic. MIM is now a preferred manufacturing method for the mass production of small size, intricate geometry components of varieties of materials, achieving close to 98% of the wrought material properties at much reduced cost in comparison with conventional machining, investment casting or precision stamping.
The Technology
MIM starts with the material selection and preparation. Blending and compounding the appropriate combinations of metal powders and plastic binders, an injection mouldable feedstock is produced. An oversized metal die set is used to produce so-called Green Parts using a normal injection molding machine, just like molding Engineering plastic parts. These Green parts are subjected to a binder removal process by either washing away or burning off or their combinations to produce so-called Brown Parts. A sintering process employing advanced control over temperature and atmosphere ensures the right material composition, physical properties and correct geometry to be imparted to the parts. These parts undergo 15 to 25% of linear dimensional shrinkage during high temperature consolidation and reach at least 96% of the theoretical density. A simple coining/sizing operation is commonly practiced in industry to ensure parts meeting extremely high precision blue print specifications.
With 16 patents in MIM technology in hand, Future High Tech deploys more than 130 injection molding machines and 70 custom-made vacuum sintering furnaces. Producing its own feedstock using in-house developed binder system, Future is able to custom make material blend tailored for its specific property requirement. Furthermore Future uses genuine imported high quality raw material powders and follows MPIF standard 35 and ISO 9001/TS 16949 in its quality and management system.
The room temperature Temperature and time Most high temperature
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