Simulation and modeling of macro and microcomponents produced by powder injection molding:A review

During the recent years powder processing technologies have gained much attention due to the less energyconsumption and recyclable powders. Manufacturing of complicated parts by the conventional powdermetallurgy (PM) method is hard due to the uniaxial pressure, which leads to the low design flexibility. In order toprevail these constraints, powder injection molding (PIM) process, which includes powder metallurgy and injectionmolding processes, is introduced. In powder injection molding, simulations are a very useful tool to predict eachstep of process and design the mold. By this way, design can already be optimized and mistakes are avoided. In thisreview a detailed study of simulation of different steps in the powder injection molding process of macro and microcomponents produced by this method is presented. Simulation investigations of mixing, injection, debinding, andsintering of various researchers are given. The computer simulation tools available for all steps of the PIM processare surveyed and results are presented. Polyolefins J (2019) 7: 45-60

Keywords:

Powder injection molding , simulation , mixing , debinding , sintering , injection.