Thermal Debinding Behavior of PIM Components Produced with Different Powder Sizes and Shapes

To understand the effect of powder characteristics on the thermal debinding behavior, PIM parts produced with powders with different particle sizes and particle shapes were examined to determine their weight losses during thermal debinding. The results show that the average diameter of the pore channel in the compact increased when the temperature increased and when coarse powders were used. However, the weight loss rates did not increase proportionally with the pore size. This suggests that the different powders that are frequently used in PIM parts do not affect the thermal debinding rate significantly. This is because the pore size is much larger than the mean free path of the decomposed gas molecules. Thus, the diffusion rates of the gases are not rate-controlling in thermal debinding. The controlling mechanism of the thermal debinding rate is the decomposition of the backbone binder in the PIM parts.