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Preparation of Ti-6Al-4V feedstock for titanium powder injection molding

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Abstract

Titanium powder injection molding (Ti-PIM), combining the advantages of both powder metallurgy and plastic injection molding, is an effective manufacturing technology for a near net shape production of titanium parts. In this work, titanium feedstock was fabricated by mixing the pre-alloyed Ti-6Al-4V powder with a wax-polymer binder system after determining their critical solid loading percentage. The rheological and binder decomposition behaviors of prepared feedstock were investigated. The results showed that the feedstock had a critical solid loading of 71 vol. % and the flow activation energy for fabricated feedstock was 64 kJ/mol. The binders were decomposed with two sigmoids functions, where the activation energies for the first and second sigmoid decomposition were 68 kJ/mol and 224 kJ/mol, respectively. The results indicated that the Ti-6Al-4V feedstock was well prepared and would provide good rheological and thermal decomposition behaviors for injection molding and thermal debinding process in Ti-PIM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Engineering (POSTECH), Pohang, 790-784, Korea

    Dongguo Lin & Seong Jin Park

  2. CetaTech, Inc., Sacheon, 664-953, Korea

    Sung Taek Chung & Young Sam Kwon

Authors
  1. Dongguo Lin
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  2. Sung Taek Chung
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  3. Young Sam Kwon
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  4. Seong Jin Park
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seong Jin Park.

Additional information

Dongguo Lin currently is a Ph.D. candidate in Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea. He has received his B.S. degree from Tongji University, China in 2011, and his M.S. degree from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea, in 2013. His fields of specialization and interest are micro-manufacturing technologies, especially on powder processing technologies including powder metallurgy and powder injection molding.

Seong Jin Park is currently a professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Korea. He achieved his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Department of Mechanical Engineering at POSTECH. Before joining POSTECH as a professor, he had extensive working experiences. He had worked as research engineer at LG Electronics, started the venture company CetaTech, and worked as an associate research professor in Mississippi State University USA. His research filed is focused on the micro-manufacturing technologies, especially on polymer assisted powder metallurgy and Multi-scale simulation technologies. He is one of the most authoritative experts in powder injection molding, who has published more than 110 journal papers.

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Lin, D., Chung, S., Kwon, Y. et al. Preparation of Ti-6Al-4V feedstock for titanium powder injection molding. J Mech Sci Technol 30, 1859–1864 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-016-0343-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-016-0343-y

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