Kinetics of Titanium Metal Injection Moulding Feedstock Thermal Debinding

Abstract

Controlled thermogravimetric pyrolysis of a metal injection moulding (MIM) feedstock was performed in order to characterize the associated thermal debinding processing in an inert atmosphere. The feedstock was formulated using Ti-6Al-4V metal powders and a newly developed MIM binder system. The catalytic effect of the metal powder on the decomposition of the binder components in the MIM feedstock is observed. The thermogravimetric analysis also reveals that thermal debinding is characterized by a multistage degradation behaviour of the binder system. In order to determine the kinetic parameters of the degradation step Ozawa and Ozawa-Flynn-Wall methods were applied. Activation energies with the degree of thermal debinding are deduced and discussed in terms of the decomposition of the binder components in the MIM feedstock.