RHEOLOGICAL AND THERMAL DEBINDING BEHAVIORS IN TITANIUM POWDER INJECTION MOLDING

Abstract

Powder injection molding (PIM) is suitable for the fabrication of complex shape titanium and its alloys and has a great potential in many applications. This article deals with the injection molding of hydride-dehydride (HDH) titanium powder, spheroidized HDH titanium powder, and gas-atomized (GA) titanium powder. Rheological and thermal debinding behaviors are compared between feedstocks made from the three powders. Torque and capillary rheometers are used to investigate rheological behavior as it relates to the power-law model of viscosity and moldability index. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was employed to analyze debinding behavior given a master decomposition curve consisting of two sigmoids. Spheroidized HDH Ti powder behaves in a manner similar to GA Ti powder. The analysis of the results in this study indicates the possibility of using a combination of HDH and GA titanium powders for PIM.