Powder Injection Moulding borrows elements from well established other areas of technology: Plastic injection moulding and powder sintering technology. Basically, a thermoplastic binder - highly filled with fine powder - serves to shape the powder, the binder is subsequently removed, and the shaped powder object is then sintered into a dense metallic or ceramic part. The technology allows the use of plastics shaping technology to make complex parts in high numbers. PIM is finding steadily increasing applications and is in the mean time for metal parts, in addition to Powder Metallurgy and Investment Casting, one of the standard production technologies for making parts of complicated shape in high numbers. Growth rates for the MIM industry are generally quoted as 15 % and more.
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