Three Most Costs of Metal Injection Molding

As we conduct a MIM part manufacturing project, the small price change in one single process might lead to huge difference due to the massive quantity.

Metal Injection Molding processes include granulation, compounding, injection, de-binding, sintering, and finishing. If we could know which several processes cost much, we could optimize these processes purposefully so we can improve our efficiency and save a lot of costs.

Below analysis all based on practical cases by ZCMIM, there are slight differences between different manufacturers. When you got different detailed classifications of inquiry from a factory, you need to delve into those prices and ratio, then decide to cooperate with which factory.

The third most cost: Feedstock

Compared to traditional powder metallurgy using powders, MIM has higher requirements about the quality of powders, in addition, the supply of binder, feedstocks is an important outlay.

Optimization:

Improving the proportion of qualified products, and maximum using of feeding.

The second most cost: Sintering

It’s about the long duration of this process(normally considered 24 hours or more).

Optimization:

You can’t roughly shorten time to end up with sintering, I’m assuming that will work by improving technology in nearly future.

The most cost: Finishing

It depends, some MIM parts cost very little on finishing, but most of them spend more on finishing than other processes, the finishing includes plating, coating, manually testing, shaping, blasting, etc. And nowadays these processes are not suitable for automaticity.

Optimization:

Strengthen training and develop an experienced and skilled workforce to reduce the number of employees and labor payment.

Beyond that, tooling is also a huge cost when beginning, especially you are not sure if it could be better, you should discuss with engineers to get the best solution for your project. And roughly 2000 dollars seems not cheap when the quantity is small.

Original Resource

Most Common Defects and Solutions on Automotive MIM Parts

With the constant development of MIM technology, it has been applied to more and more industries, and it is essential since been used in automotive. Whilst there are some common defects in the metal injection molding process.

1. Lack of Injection

Lack of injection is the phenomenon that mold cavity cannot be completely filled, the main reason is the stagnation. It occurs due to there is a relatively thin structure near the gate, and the melt encounters relatively large forward resistance during the injection molding process. If the melt does not flow at this point and there is no heat to replenish and have solidified, it will cause lack of Injection.



2. Jet Pattern
The jet pattern is the trails that stream from the gate along the flow direction, bending like a sneak trail. When this happens, we can apply an antiknock pin in front of the gate to prevent stream jets and also to enlarge the gate cross section.



3. Top Raised

When ejector ejecting parts, and the workpiece is not fully cooled solidification, mold release force, leading to parts in the mandrel head position is convex, higher than the normal surface of the workpiece. Under this circumstances, by reducing the ejection speed and mold temperature, to extend the cooling time could be working.

The State Of 2017 China Metal Injection Molding Development And Future

Development Of MIM Technology Around The World

Despite the sluggish overall growth of the world economy since 2008, otherwise, with the rapid popularization and improvement of information technologies such as the Internet and the booming electronic product market, as well as the gradual maturity of MIM manufacturing technology, MIM products have been rapidly promoted and widely used in the field of electronic products . The development of medical devices has also led to the promotion of MIM technology. In addition, the innovative development of components in the traditional industrial fields such as automobiles, machinery, and hardware has also effectively promoted the rapid growth of the MIM market. Currently, the electronics, automotive, mechanical hardware and medical equipment industries are still the four areas with the largest share of global MIM applications. Driven by their demand, the global MIM market in 2012 exceeded 1 billion US dollars, followed by Promote the application more quickly, the global MIM market size in 2016 reached 2.283 billion US dollars, the average growth rate of 18.2% over the past eight years, an increase of 127.6% over 2010.

Current State Of China MIM Market

The electronic equipment industry is one of the main areas of applications for MIM components, accounting for approximately 50% of MIM component sales in Asia. The miniaturization of electronic components requires the production of lower cost, better performance, smaller parts, which is the advantages of MIM parts.

MIM’s growth in China has benefited from the electronics industry (such as the mobile phone industry), which has seen the whole industry skyrocket since 2009. Especially in mid-2011, due to the competition from Apple and Samsung Electronics, MIM parts used in large quantities, is the craze never seen before.
Although China MIM technology started later than developed countries, however, the development momentum of the industry is strong, especially in recent years, driven by the rapid development of the Internet and intelligent terminals, the domestic mim market has seen rapid leaps and bounds. In 2011, the domestic market of mim broke through the mark of 1 billion yuan. By 2015, the market size has reached nearly 5 billion yuan, reaching 4.85 billion yuan. According to the global growth rate of the MIM, the market size is expected to reach 5.17 billion yuan by 2017.

At present, there are over 250 MIM manufacturers and workshops in China, including parts of feedstock companies, facility manufacturers.

Challenges For China MIM

With the rapid development of China’s manufacturing industry, metal powder metallurgy industry market competition more and more intense. Many companies have to reduce the price of processing or powder metallurgy products in order to survive in the fierce market competition. It is understood that many enterprises in China are now facing such a situation. One of the important reasons may be that the entire upstream and downstream steel industry chain is facing a small profit situation. The steel industry in recent years, the level of profits continued to decline. As early as 2010, the profit margin of the entire industry even dropped to 2.91%, at the average level of China’s industrial circle. Since then, the profit margin has remained at a low level, causing economic losses to many steel companies.

In addition, the serious competition of homogenous products may also lead to the increasingly competitive “capital bottleneck” in China’s metallurgical equipment manufacturing industry. Low-level, homogeneous competition in China a large number of small and medium-sized metallurgical products manufacturing industry widely disseminated. After decades of development, most of China’s powder metallurgy products enterprises can independently produce. However, due to overcapacity of some products, companies can only accept orders at low prices. In order to occupy the market position, some manufacturing companies can receive orders even with low profit or without profit.

Outlook Of China MIM Industry

China MIM industry shall take full advantage of cost, price, marketing channels, market segmentation and personalized service advantages, to avoid the vicious price war competition. In addition, it is necessary to increase the added value of products, adopt advanced technologies to develop high-end products, avoid homogenous competition, explore the international market and break the status quo. However, judging from the current situation, in order to develop into the international market, there is still a long way to go in addition to overcoming the development bottlenecks such as the shortage of funds and technical difficulties.

The Primary Choice of “Green Auto” Manufacturing-Metal Injection Molding

Metal injection molding products(mim parts) used in automobiles are very high-tech products that can reduce the weight of automobiles and reduce the manufacturing costs. They also have the function of optimizing the production technology of automobile industry products and enhancing the competitiveness of the automobile industry. Currently, the metal injection molding parts are used in automobiles has more than 400 kinds.
As a typical net-final manufacturing technology, metal injection molding has advantages in many aspects such as energy saving, material saving, environmental protection, economy and high efficiency, and has been gradually recognized by various industries and widely used; especially, the application of automotive metal injection molding products With the rapid development of the metal injection molding industry has promoted the rapid development of the lane.

Metal injection molding parts can reduce costs and vehicle weight

metal injection molding parts used in automobile manufacturing are mainly sintered metal oil-bearing and metal injection molding structural parts, the former is mainly produced by 90Cu-10Sn bronze, the latter is basically made of iron powder as the basic raw material. Here are some examples of metal injection molding technology applications:
A metal injection molding 64-tooth power take-off drive gear saves about 40% less costly parts machined from steel and does not require subsequent machining of gears; a metal injection molding automotive manual transmission synchronizer ring, as compared to conventional production Of the synchronizer ring, can reduce the cost of 38%; a metal injection molding compound planetary gear carrier, the ultimate strength of castings than the cast iron 40% higher, while reducing the cost of more than 35% ...

Many award-winning mim parts show that metal injection molding parts cannot only replace die-casting parts, forgings, machined parts, it can save labor, save material, save energy, reduce production costs, but also reduce the weight of parts, which is conducive to lightweight vehicles. More importantly, the development of metal injection molding combination parts, marking that some parts can only be made using metal injection molding technology, has important technical and economic significance.

Metal Injection Molding is a “green manufacturing” technology

At present, metal injection molding has been recognized by the industry as a green, sustainable manufacturing technology.
In terms of continuous functionality, the ultimate metallization power and material utilization of metallurgical powder metallurgy minimize total energy consumption. Compared with the traditional process (hot working + cold working), casting or forging + cutting, metal injection molding process to manufacture the same part requires only a few steps, which can be completed more processes, more complex processes. The ultimate strength of metal injection molding is its main strength in terms of material sustainability.
For example, forming a toothed part can result in up to 40% of the material turned into chips in conventional cutting processes, whereas 85% of the total powder metallurgy is produced from recycled material. In the production of metal injection molding parts, waste loss of each process is generally 3% or less, the material utilization rate of up to 95%.

In terms of energy sustainability, the conventional traditional manufacturing process requires several heating and reheating processes to finalize the shape. When atomizing the steel powder or iron powder, only the scrap material needs to be melted once, and all other heat Processing operations are carried out below the melting temperature of the temperature, so that not only energy saving but also can be made into the final shape and the formation of the required material properties, mechanical properties. A comparison of material utilization rates for metal forming found that the energy required to make metal injection molding parts was 44% of forged-machined parts.
In terms of environmental sustainability, due to the ultimate shaping ability of metal injection molding, finished parts are usually produced after sintering, ready for packaging and delivery. In most cases, the cutting oil used to process metal injection molding products is negligible, and the amount of toxic pollutants released by sources such as cooling water is small. Compared with other manufacturing processes, the metal injection molding parts industry is almost harmless to the environment.
Metal injection molding parts is already an indispensable basic type of automobile industry, many world-renowned metal injection molding enterprises have also established wholly-owned enterprises in China, personally believe that in the near future, China will gradually become one of the largest distribution centers of auto mim parts.

Structure Of Metal Powder Injection Mold

Mold is the foundation of the industry. Mold technology, to a large extent, determines the cost of the product, good quality, and even functional features. Metal powder injection molding mold is the basic component of the MIM process.The main structure of metal injection molding mold (commonly known as MIM mold) and the structure of the traditional plastic mold are roughly the same, the casting system, forming parts and structural parts of the three major components. Among them, the pouring system and the forming part are the parts that are in direct contact with the filling mold and are the parts with the highest processing finish and precision in the mold.

The Casting System
Refers to the molten material from the nozzle into the cavity before the runner part, including the main runner, cold material points, runners and gates and so on. The main channel refers to the nozzle to the diversion flow or cavity of a passageway, generally conical, the top is concave, in order to connect with the nozzle; cold material hole is located at the end of the main channel for a hole to cover the nozzle The two ends of the cold material between the injection to prevent the blockage of the runner and gate; shunt is the main runner and the gate between the gate, the general multi-cavity mold; gate is the shunt and type Cavity connection point, the molten material through the gate into the cavity forming.

The Forming Parts
Refers to the shape of the various components, including dynamic mode, fixed mold and cavity, core, forming rod and exhaust and so on. The movable mold is installed on the moving template of the injection machine, and the fixed mold is installed on the fixed mold of the injection machine. When working, the movable mold and the fixed mold are closed, and the core and the parting cavity form the cavity of the mold. Exhaust port is a slot-shaped air outlet provided in the mold for discharging the gas introduced by the melt.

The Structural Components
Including the guide, stripping, core-pulling, sub-type, such as before and after deduction template, bearing plate, guide column, stripping plate, stripping rod and so on. Guide components are to ensure that the movable mold and fixed mold can be accurately aligned in the mold clamping, the guide member must be set in the mold for positioning; demolding parts for the introduction of shaped parts and reset; some of the more complex shapes of the product Need to design the core, the core can be removed after the smooth release.

With more and more widely used products, the requirements are getting higher and higher, MIM mold manufacturing and design processes must also continue to improve in order to meet the needs of product development.

What Materials Would Be The Future Trend Of Metal Injection Molding?

With the development of MIM technology, we’ve used different kinds of material on this technology such as Iron Based, Low Alloy Steel, and Stainless Steel became the most popular material for applying. In the nearly future, we’re gonna believe more and more materials would be used in this advanced metal parts manufacturing process. So we list some materials that seem most likely to be used in Metal Injection Molding(MIM).

1. Nickel-free stainless steel
In the currently widely used medical austenitic stainless steel 316L and 17-4PH, nickel is an important alloying element. The main role of nickel is to form a stable austenitic stainless steel structure, thereby improving the corrosion resistance of stainless steel, plasticity, weldability and toughness properties, under room temperature stable austenitic stainless steel can also be made with non-magnetic .

However, nickel is a potential allergic factor, and a large number of clinical manifestations in the West confirm that nickel and its compounds can be harmful to humans. The most common damage is contact dermatitis, eczema occurs in patients with strong allergies.

At present, the EU has issued a ban on nickel, which be fully implemented by the end of 2016. The alternative is to use high-nitrogen, nickel-free chromium-manganese-molybdenum steel, which is exactly the strength of MIM technology.


2. Copper and brass
Metallic applications are magnetically non-conductive and are good materials for 3C products. Due to the MIM technology is economy and affordability, copper alloys should be a good option, but in the past few people concered sintering of copper alloys, mainly because the copper alloy plumbing equipment can be achieved through die-casting, the sintering of pure copper can not be done with normaly sinter furnace, the pressure must be greater than one atmosphere above the high-pressure sintering furnace, not the general factory can be set, mainly copper (and its alloys), low vapor pressure, vaporization has not yet reached the sintering temperature is quite serious, in addition to easy get contaminated of the furnace wall, the product is not easy to burn dense.

PIM International magazine 2015 first issue reported that the world's largest MIM / PM powder consumption in mainland China and Taiwan, but apparently only emphasis on heat pipes and heat sinks, and a small part of the bronze self-lubricating bearings and filters. For copper and Copper alloy MIM products, still to be developed. Normally, this material is expected to have the opportunity to quickly gain in value through the adoption of Apple computers.


3. Titanium and titanium alloys
Titanium and titanium alloys have always been the star material, but the price is too high, the source of powder is limited, so industrial applications are confined to the aviation buckle, special parts, and medical devices and implants, a small part of the wearable products , But due to the appearance of titanium is easy to lead to decoration is not good enough looking, a lot of stainless steel polishing to PVD is black, that only a thin layer of titanium surface, not enough to be called titanium. We also look forward to market development and nickel-free stainless steel era, high strength and relatively low proportion of titanium has its excellent mechanical and human affinity, to look forward to the extensive use of MIM titanium parts.


4. Functional metals and ceramics
Since 2017 the most discussed, most mysterious and the popular, I believe that is a functional material, due to many special applications, related materials such as various non-ferrous metal alloys, functional ceramics and so on. For example, soft magnetic materials such as cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy (CoCrMo) or cobalt-iron (Hiper Co), ceramics are even more varied.

Metal Injection Molding To Promote The Industrialization Of Powder Metallurgy Made A Breakthrough

In the process of understanding the powder metallurgy technology, we came into contact with metal injection molding process, did not expect it completely different from the ordinary forming technology, in the mass manufacture of complex geometry, high performance, high precision parts must have no difficulty, So as to promote the industrialization of powder metallurgy business to make a breakthrough.

Powder metallurgy companies in the metal powder injection molding time, in addition to the need to prepare the appropriate processing of the corresponding powder, but also need to add more powder to the binder. Therefore, either powder or binder should meet the requirements, otherwise it will affect the forming of powder metallurgy products.

The powder should be used ≤ 10um ultrafine spherical powder, and from the mixture to degreasing, sintering, the process is more complex, demanding processes, in particular, require longer degreasing and sintering time, which is also caused by the manufacturing cost of powder metallurgy High main reason. The adhesive wolf must be adequate, otherwise, it is difficult to achieve the corresponding performance.

This powder metallurgy company developed a simplified method is flow pressure forming technology, which is the temperature and pressure of metal powder, based on the combination of the advantages of metal powder injection molding process; and then by adding the right amount of coarse powder and fine Powder, and increase the amount of thermoplastic lubricant, thereby greatly improving the mixed powder flowability, filling and formability.

Since the mixed powder becomes a viscous fluid with good fluidity during pressing, it not only has the advantages of a liquid but also has a high viscosity and reduces the friction force, so that the pressing pressure is evenly distributed in the powder, Very good delivery. Because of this, the powder can flow to every corner without cracks during the pressing process, so that the density is also greatly improved.

At present, the powder metallurgy enterprise has already popularized this technology and used for precision forming of the workpieces with very complicated shapes on the conventional tablet press. This not only overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional cold pressing in forming complicated geometric shapes, but also avoids the high injection molding technology cost.