Complex Shaped Hardmetals by PIM

摘要

Hardmetals (cemented tungsten carbide) is a class of material that is extensively used in numerous wear and cutting tool applications. The high hardness of this material makes it suitable for applications where the material has to withstand abrasion. The high hardness of this class of material makes it very difficult to fabricate these materials into complex shaped parts. This difficulty in forming complex shapes from this material has seriously limited the widespread use of Hardmetals in a variety of different wear applications. Powder Injection Molding (PIM) is a relatively new technique for shaping of various advanced materials into complex, near net shape parts. Though PIM of Hardmetals is a very attractive technique for making complex shapes, commercial use of this technique has been limited primarily due to the technical challenges. This paper will discusses some of the PIM processing issues and show some examples of complex shaped hardmetal parts.