MIM: An Alternative to Castings and forgings for small metal and alloy parts

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Metal Injection Molding
Metal Injection Molding

Application of high performance materials in volume in electronic, medical, defense, consumer sector has pushed the PIM market to over 3.5 Billion USD in 2017. Advances in feedstock formulation using finer metal powders have resulted in the industry moving into a new realm of Micro-PIM. The growth of PIM markets is over 24 % y-o-y and this presents a good opportunity for Indian manufacturing sector to adopt this technology for mass production of complex parts. Some components made from Metal Injection Molding technology are shown in Figures 1-3.
Metal Injection molding accounts for major share of the PIM market globally. In Europe, MIM focuses on the consumer market (eye glasses, watches), while in North America the market are medical devices. In Asia, electronic components (iphone, Samsung), hardware market account for majority of the market [4]. In comparison to China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan who have more than 250 MIM/CIM companies, India has only a handful of MIM firms (less than 5), and this technology is relatively unexplored in India. The reason is mainly due to lack of technical eco-system for this technology to be widely adopted. It is my aim to create such an eco-system by starting with research focusing on raw material development.

Figure 2: Left: Orthodontic brackets made with MIM, Right: Turbo charger Vane for an automotive application made through MIM

Figure 3: Left: MIM components for medical device applications (Courtesy: Phillips Medicine) Right: Watch cases made by MIM for swatch Co. (Courtesy: Swatch)

The main steps involved in the PIM process are a) Mixing b) Injection Molding c) Debinding d) Sintering.  The process is well established and has an increasing demand due to the implementation of MIM parts in computers, cell phones, electronics, Automotive, medical and defense sectors. India is seeing a surge in the MIM market and manufacturers in the past few years. 

There are about 400+ MIM companies in the world doing a global turnover of over 3.5 Billion USD in 2017-2018. The growth y-o-y is 24 % and above and hence presents a great opportunity to enter this business segment.

Components of interest for use in Industry

Category: Automotive—Chassis
Market Segment: Automotive 

Description: The spur gear is used in the rear-door assembly of SUVs to enable their opening in the event of loss of automatic control function. The parts have a density of 7.5 g/cc, an ultimate tensile strength of 600 MPa, a yield strength of 235 MPa, an elongation of 10%, and a hardness of 100 HRB max. Made via MIM from 4605 low-alloy steel, the part replaced a gear that was machined and had the pin welded on, achieving estimated savings of 30% in the process. This gear is an outstanding example of MIMs ability to meet close tolerances on concentricity and perpendicularity on a part with such a lengthy gear profile. 

Category:Automotive—Engine
Market Segment: Automotive 

Description: The picture shows four MIM partsblank discharge check, stop discharge check valve, valve discharge check, and CRV spring seatthat go into a device that controls fuel flow in Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) pumps. Three of the parts are made of 440C stainless steel, while the fourth is made of 17-4 PH. The extremely complex geometry of the blank discharge check, with the intercrossing of holes, required tool

Authors

  • Dr Ravi Bollina

    Dr Ravi Bollina is an authority in Semiconductor Technologies, Additive manufacturing, Metal Injection Molding (MIM), and Material Sciences. He also works in the areas of Diamond based abrasives, micron diamond powders, diamond paste and diamond slurry, and custom diamond-based grinding wheels. His areas of expertise include Diamond powders, Diamond slurries, Semiconductor fabrication, Power Electronics, Thermal Management, Aerospace, Lighting industry, LED, Micro-Electronics, Opto-Electronics, Defense Technologies & Manufacturing.

  • MM Desk

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