Papers by Keyword: PEG/PMMA Binder

Abstract: Powder injection moulding of 304L stainless steel - tungsten carbide (WC) composites were carried out in the present work. Two different WC particle i.e. WC having average size of 4.8 µm and 1.6 µm were used. Feedstock of powder loading up to 55 vol% were successfully prepared using binder composed mainly of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and a minor constituent of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). The mouldings were leached in water at temperatures of 40 °C and 60 °C from 30 minutes to 24 hours in order to study the effect of leaching conditions on the removal of the PEG. The remaining binder, PMMA, provided strength to the mouldings after leaching of the PEG and it could be removed by pyrolysis during ramping up to the sintering temperature. Specimens were sintered under hydrogen atmosphere at 1250 °C for 1 hour. Sintered components were subjected to testing and characterisation. Scanning electron microscope was used to observe microstructure of specimens after moulding, leaching and sintering. It was found that the hardness of the sintered specimens increased with either increasing the amount of the powder loading in the feedstock or reducing the average size of WC in the powder mixture. In addition, the water leaching of the PEG linearly correlates with the natural log of time and the equation predicts that PEG will be removed completely in 11.24 ± 1.31 hours which corresponds with the experiment result that PEG completely removed in 12 hours.

Abstract: Powder injection moulding (PIM) is a cost effective powder metallurgical process for the fabrication of small, complex-shaped components for high performance applications. A binder system, which comprises a major fraction of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and a minor fraction of a very finely dispersed polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), has been applied for tungsten carbide (WC) – cobalt (Co) hardmetal powders. PEG can be removed rapidly by water leaching and PMMA is removed by subsequent pyrolysis when the components are ramped up to the sintering temperature. In this work, the development of feedstock formulations and of the processing parameters for a successful injection moulding and to achieve high density has been investigated. The present study has demonstrated that the binder can be employed for the production of WC-Co hardmetal components by PIM process. The maximum density achieved thus far is 97% of the theoretical value.