A Study on the Optimization of Solvent Debinding Process for Powder Injection Molded 316L Stainless Steel Parts

摘要

Optimization of solvent de-binding process parameters for powder injection molding (PIM) of 316L stainless steel (SS) has been reported in this research work. Powder gas atomized (PGA) 316L SS was blended with a multicomponent binder in a Z-blade mixer at temperature of 170 ± 5°C for 90 minutes. Feedstock was successfully injected at temperature of 170 ± 5°C. Injection molded samples were immersed in n-heptane for 2 h, 4 h, 6 h and 8 h at temperatures of 50°C, 55°C and 60°C to extract the soluble binder components. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) results attested that soluble binder components were completely extracted from injection molded samples at temperature of 55°C after 6 h.