Application of Statistical Analysis in the Powder Injection Molding (PIM) of Mullite

Abstract

In this work, the statistical analysis methods, including least square method and statistical hypothesis testing, were used to study the flexural strength and density of the specimens formed from mullite powder by powder injection molding (PIM). The feedstock for PIM consist of mullite powder and the composite binder consisting of 78 wt% polyethylene glycol (PEG), 20 wt% polyvinyl butyral (PVB), and 2 wt% stearic acid (SA). The PIM machine used in this work was the lab-scale plunger type. The compositions of the feedstock that could be injection molded by this machine were 50, 52, and 54vol% mullite. After molding, PEG in the green specimens was removed prior to sintering by soaking the specimens in the water at 60 °C for 24 hours while PVB and SA were removed during sintering. The sintering temperatures were 1300 to 1450°C. At significance level of 0.05, the least square method and the statistical hypothesis test showed that both feedstock compositions and sintering temperatures used in this work affected the densities of sintered specimens. However, the increasing of the flexural strength of sintered specimens was mainly by the increasing of the sintering temperature.