• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2012

Gas-assisted injection molding(GAIM) produces parts with hollow internal sections. The technique offers benefits to powder injection molding(PIM), with lower material usage and reduced time for de-binding processes. In this study, the effects of processing parameters on gas penetration length of gas-assisted powder injection molding(GAPIM) were investigated for SUS316L stainless steel powder feedstock. Experiments were planned based on the Taguchi method, involving processing variables such as melt temperature, shot size, gas pressure, and gas delay time. The most significant parameters affecting gas penetration length were gas delay time and shot size, while the effects of melt temperature and gas pressure was relatively insignificant.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.267-272
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• 2002

The production of micro components is one of the leading technologies in the fields of information and communiation, medical and biotechnology, and micro sensor and micro actuator system. Microfabrication (micromachining) techniques such as X-ray lithography, electroforming, micromolding and excimer laser ablation are used for the production of micro components out of silicon, polymer and a limited number of pure metals or binary alloys. However, since the first development of microfabrication technologies there have been demands for the cost-effective replication in large scale series as well as the extended range of available material. One such promising process is micro powder injection molding (PIM), which inherits the advantages of the conventional PIM technology, such as low production cost, shape complexity, applicability to many materials, applicability to many materials, and good tolerance. This paper reports on a fundamental investigation of the application of W-Cu powder to micro metal injection molding (MIM), especially in view of achieving a good filling and a safe removal of a micro mold conducted in the experiment. It is absolutely legitimate and meaningful, at the present state of the technique, to continue developing the micro MIM towards production processes for micro components.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.205-206
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• 2006

A ball-shape alumina arc-tube for low-wattage lamp was developed by the PIM process. An ultra high purity translucentgrade alumina powder was used. In injection molding process, a hot-runner type mold was developed. The translucent-grade alumina powder was extremely sensitive to contamination so that the injection molding condition and atmosphere control in the furnace should be taken care of with extreme caution. Contamination sources were pinpointed with EPMA. The arc-tube was molded in half and two halves were bonded in the middle by a new bonding technique at room temperature developed in this study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.305-308
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• 2001

Powder injection molding (PIM) uses the shaping advantage of injection molding but is applicable to metals and ceramics. This process combines a small quantity of polymer with an inorganic powder to form a feedstock that can be molded. After shaping, the polymeric binder is extracted and the powder is sintered often to near-theoretical densities. Accordingly, PIM delivers structural materials in a shaping technology previously restricted to polymers. The process overcomes the shape limitations of traditional powder compaction, the costs of machining, the productivity limits of isostatic pressing and slip casting, and the defect and tolerance limitations of casting. The 17-4 PH stainless steel powders with average diameter of $10{\mu}m$ were injection-molded into flat tensile specimens. Sintering of the compacts was carried out at the various temperatures ranging from 900 to $1350^{\circ}C$. Sintering behavior of the compacts and tensile properties of sintered specimens were investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.717-718
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• 2007

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.235-244
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• 2002

The effects of residual impurities on solid state sintering of the powder injection molded (PIMed) W-15wt%Cu nanocomposite powder were investigated. The W-Cu nanocomposite powder was produced by the mech-ano-chemical process consisting of high energy ball-milling and hydrogen reduction of W blue powder-cuO mixture. Solid state sintering of the powder compacts was conducted at $1050^{\circ}C$ for 2~10 h in hydrogen atmosphere. The den-sification of PIM specimen was slightly larger than that of PM(conventional PM specimen), being due to fast coalescence of aggregate in the PIM. The only difference between PIM and PM specimens was the amount of residual impurities. The carbon as a strong reduction agent effectively reduced residual W oxide in the PIM specimen. The $H_2O$ formed by $H_2$ reduction of oxide disintegrated W-Cu aggregates during removal process, on the contrary to this, micropore volume rapidly decreased due to coalescence of the disintegrated W-Cu aggregates during evolution of CO.It can be concluded that the higher densification was due to the earlier occurred Cu phase spreading that was induced by effective removal of residual oxides by carbon.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2002.04b
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• pp.26-27
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• 2002

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.60-63
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• 2009

Manufacturing technologies of micro spur gear and micro mold by micro PIM were studied with stainless steel feedstock. For molding of gears, micro mold with gear cavity of 1.2 mm in diameter was produced by wire EDM. The proper injection pressure was selected to 70bar by observation and measuring of shapes and shrinkage of gears before/after sintering. For fabrication of micro mold, a tiny polymer gear was produced by injection into the mold. Then, 316L feedstock was again injected/compressed on the polymer gear and debinded together with polymer gear followed by sintering. As a result, another metal mold with gear cavity reduced to about 20% was fabricated and through repetition of this process chain, micro gear mold with cavity about below 800 um was finally obtained. In reduction of size by injection/compression molding, height of gear tooth was shrunk more and the effort for decrease of roughness of micro cavity were carried out ultrasonic polishing and as a result, the roughness in cavity decreased from 3-4 um to about 200 nm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.343-344
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• 2006

Powder injection molding(PIM) is widely used for many parts in the field of automotives, electronics and medical industries, due to the capability of net shaping for complex 3-D geometry. Powder injection mold design fur the dental scaler tip, a component of medical appliance, was presented. In comparison with conventional machining process, powder injection molding has many advantages, specially in price and dimensional stability, for molding dental scaler tip which has complex geometry. Both product design and mold design for dental scaler tip were presented. The 'rapid mold' concept was applied to manufacture the various forms of dental scaler tip.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.215-221
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• 2014

Translucent alumina is a potential candidate for high temperature application as a replacement of the glass or polymer. Recently, due to the increasing demand of high power light emitting diode (LED), there is a growing interest in the translucent alumina. Since the translucent property is very sensitive to the internal defect, such as voids inside or abnormal grain growth of sintered alumina, it is important to fabricate the defect-free product through the fabrication process. Powder injection molding (PIM) has been commonly applied for the fabrication of complex shaped products. Among the many parameters of PIM, the flowability of powder/binder mixture becomes more significant especially for the shape of the cavity with thin thickness. Two different positions of the gate were applied during PIM using the disc type of die. The binder was removed by solvent extraction method and the brown compact was sintered at $1750^{\circ}C$ for 3 hours in a vacuum. The flowability was also simulated using moldflow (MPI 6.0) with two different types of gate. The effect of the flowability of powder/binder mixture on the microstructure of the sintered specimen was studied with the analysis of the simulation result.