Study of the Thermal Decomposition for Different Feedstocks Powder Injection Moulding

摘要

Powder injection molding (PIM) is a suitable technology for manufacturing of complex shapes stainless with 316L stainless steel and has a great potential in many applications. In this paper, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is employed to analyze thermal debinding behaviour (under argon atmosphere). Feedstocks have been elaborated with a mixture of polymers composed of paraffin wax, polypropylene and stearic acid for the binder system. The thermal debinding behaviour has been analysed for 316L 5um feedstocks with different powder volume loadings in the range 60, 62 and 64% at different heating rates 2, 5 and 10°C/min. The Arrhenius parameters (activation energy and pre-exponential factor) for thermal decomposition reaction estimated by Ozawa method and Kissinger method reveal a proper correlation. A kinetic model assuming a first order reaction rate is used to set up the numerical simulations of the thermal debinding cycle using MATLAB® code. The parameters identification in MATLAB® code permits to get simulation results close to the experimental ones.