Mixing and Characterisation of Stainless Steel 316L Feedstock for Waste Polystyrene Binder System in Metal Injection Molding (MIM)

Abstract

This paper describes the mixing process and homogeneity analysis of a newly developed binder system based on waste polystyrene (PS) and palm kernel oil (PKO) to produce feedstock for metal injection molding (MIM). Since mixing is a critical step in MIM process, hence the mixture of powder and binder should be homogeneous and injectable. In this study, water atomised Stainless Steel powder was mixed with a new binder system consisting of waste polystyrene and palm kernel oil in a Brabender Plastograph EC rotary mixer. Several tests were performed to assess the homogeneity of the feedstock that was produced at 60 vol.% powder loadings. The 60 vol.% was chosen because the Critical Powder Volume Concentration (CPVC) of the SS316L powder was found to be 64.8 vol.%. The tests conducted were density, binder burn-out and SEM morphology observation. It was found that the feedstock shows good homogeneity and suitable for further processing in MIM.