Powder Injection Moulding – PIM

Powder injection moulding / molding is a process of manufacturing geometrically complex parts from materials that are demanding with regard to machinability, like carbide or ceramics / keramics.
Powder injection moulding is particularly suited for small parts with medium and large lot sizes. The process is characterised by its high rate of yield with regard to the raw material.

Metal Injection Moulding – MIM

The powder metallurgical production unites the complex shaping options of injection moulding with the variable material characteristics of metallic powder materials.

Ceramics Injection Moulding – CIM

As a material capable of bearing large loads, ceramics has gained an increasing significance in, among others, the automotive or medical industry (for example hip joint implants). Injection moulding allows to produce complexly shaped parts with specific material properties.

Production of the Injection Moulding Material (Feedstock)

At first, the powder is blended with one or several binder components at specific thermal conditions to form the Compound. In a second step, the Compound is granulated. The resulting so-called Feedstock is the raw material for the injection moulding process.

Process Sequence of Powder Injection Moulding

Powder Injection Moulding consists of three process steps:

• At first, parts close to their final contours are shaped on standard injection moulding machines. At this point, the so-called green part can easily be altered by machine finishing, for example through cutting, drilling, milling, or turning.
• The following Debinding – the removal of the binder components that were necessary for the shaping process – is realised through extraction by organic solvent or water. The moulded part turns into the so-called brown part.
• The last process step consists of a combination of (residual) Debinding and Sintering under high temperatures. As a result, we obtain the metal or ceramics part that shows its final geometrical and material properties and which is ready for use.