Development of Recycled TiH₂ Feedstock for Powder Injection Molding

Powder Injection molding (PIM) is a cost-effective process for the fabrication of complex shaped parts, and has a great potential in many applications. In this work, an improved wax-based binder was developed for the powder injection molding of TiH₂ powder fabricated by recycling of Ti chip. Fine TiH₂ powders of about 350 nm in particle size were produced by attrition milling of Ti chip in less than five minutes, resulting from simultaneous self-propagating High temperature Synthesis (SHS) and fracturing. TiH₂ feedstock, a mixture of binder and powders, was fabricated with critical powder loading of 68 vol.%. The rheological characteristics of the feedstock were investigated for subsequent processing step. Viscosity of the feedstock showed pseudo-plastic flow behavior and to optimize injection molding parameter, in-mold rheology curve was generated. The results indicated that the recycled TiH₂ feedstock can be used for the fabrication of the complex shaped parts with good shape.