Mixing study of aluminium waste as metal powder for waste polystyrene binder system in Metal Injection Molding (MIM)

摘要

The mixing process of a newly developed binder system based on waste polystyrene (PS) and palm kernel oil (PKO) to produce feedstock for metal injection molding (MIM) using aluminium waste as metal powder is described. Since mixing is a critical step in MIM process, therefore the mixture of powder and binder should be homogeneous and moldable. In this study, aluminium powder produced from waste aluminium alloy was mixed with a new binder system consisting of waste polystyrene and palm kernel oil in a Brabender Plastograph EC rotary mixer. Several tests were performed to assess the homogeneity of the feedstock that was produced at 60 vol.% powder loadings. The tests conducted were density, binder burn-out and SEM morphology observation. It was found that the feedstock shows good homogeneity and suitable for further processing in MIM.