Preparation and Characterization of Copper Feedstock for Metal Injection Molding

Powder loading is one of the most critical factors which have important influence on metal injection molding processes. In this study, four different loading feedstocks were prepared from gas atomized copper powder with wax-based binders. Mixes of four feedstocks with 2 Vol. % incremental powders loading from 55% to 61 Vol. % were carried out in a Z-blade mixer. The injection molding was carried out at low pressure. A combination of solvent and thermal debinding was used for binder removal from the samples and then the sintering process take place in argon gas at 900°C. It was observed that the feedstock containing 59 Vol. % of copper produce a free defect samples which was selected as the optimum feedstock.