Injection Molding of Powder-Polymer Mixture: Advanced Method for Production of Complex and Precise Engineering Parts

Today, powder injection molding (PIM) of powder-polymer mixture is considered as a novel technique for production of various complex shapes and dimensionally small parts. This method is a combination of traditional powder metallurgy and plastic injection molding. Mixing, molding, de-binding and sintering are four important steps of PIM. Unique abilities of this process for plastic part manufacturing consist of complex geometries, controllable properties, excellent dimensional accuracy and minimum material loss without machining. In this paper, the history of PIM technique, processing advantages, required specifications of a proper mixture of powder and polymer system are investigated. Furthermore, significant details of PIM steps are evaluated. Finally, PIM technique is studied from the application standpoint to marketing potentials.