About
Metal Injection Molding (MIM) is similar to plastic injection molding where a material is injected into a mold to form the part. In this case, the material is fine metal powder that is mixed with a binder material. This allows for complex parts metal parts to be made in high volume.
There are some limitations to MIM. Currently, only 100 grams or less of material can be injected into the mold at a time. This limits the size of the parts that can be made using this process. The final parts can undergo secondary operations to produce the final part.
MIM Process
The process has multiple steps to produce the final part. First the metal powder and binder material is heated and injected into the mold using normal plastic injection molding machines. This is then cooled and de-molded producing a fragile green part. The green part undergoes a final sintering process where the part is heated to near melting temperature to produce a part that is 96-99% solid and nearly the same mechanical properties of other metal working techniques.
Metal Injection Molding Materials
Stainless Steel | Copper | Titanium |
---|---|---|
Tantalum | Iron | Nickel |
Tungsten | Cobalt-Chromium | Aluminum |
Molybdenum | Precious Metals | Alloys |
# | Company | Reviews | Rating |
---|---|---|---|
1 | AVVID | 0 | |
2 | Advanced Forming Technology | 0 | |
3 | Advanced Powder Products Inc | 0 | |
4 | California Standoff | 0 | |
5 | Control Plastics Inc | 19 | |
6 | Eastek International Corporation | 1 | |
7 | Greene Group Industries/Britt Manufacturing | 2 | |
8 | Marman Industries | 3 | |
9 | NetShape Technologies | 0 | |
10 | OptiMIM (formerly Dynacast Portland) | 2 | |
11 | Parmatech Corporation | 0 | |
12 | Phillips Metal Injection Molding | 0 | |
13 | Phillips-Medisize | 20 | |
14 | Protomold | 44 | |
15 | R & D Plastics LLC | 0 | |
16 | Ruger Precision Metals | 0 | |
17 | Smith Metal Products | 0 | |
18 | Smith Metal Products | 0 | |
19 | Southwest Greene International | 0 | |
20 | Tanfel | 3 |