Sintering Behavior of Bi-Material Micro-Component of 17-4PH Stainless Steel and Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Produced by Two-Component Micro-Powder Injection Molding Process.

Al Basir,Abu Bakar Sulong,Norhamidi Muhamad,Nashrah Hani Jamadon

doi:10.3390/ma15062059

Abstract

In this research, we investigated the influence of the sintering temperature on the physical and mechanical properties of micro-sized bi-material components of 17-4PH stainless steel and 3 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia fabricated using a two-component micro-powder injection molding (2C-μPIM) process. First, 17-4PH and zirconia powders were separately mixed with binders to obtain feedstocks, which were then injection-molded into the dumbbell shape, followed by the binder extraction process. Subsequently, the debound micro-specimens were subjected to sintering between 1250 °C and 1350 °C for 3 h. Per the observations of the microstructures using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), a strong bond between metal and ceramic in micro-sized 17-4PH/zirconia components was formed when the sintering temperature exceeded 1300 °C. The maximum relative density of 99% was achieved when the bi-material micro-part was sintered at 1350 °C. The linear shrinkage increased from 9.6% to 17.4% when the sintering temperature was increased from 1250 °C to 1350 °C. The highest hardness value of 1439.6 HV was achieved at 1350 °C along the bi-material bonding region. Moreover, a maximum tensile strength of 13.7 MPa was obtained at 1350 °C.

Highlights

Academic Editor: Dae-Cheol KoThe influence of micro-systems technology has increased over the past few decades.The world market has emphasized producing downsized products [1–3]
The sintering process was successfully performed on the solvent- and thermal-debound 17-4PH/zirconia micro-sized components with dimensions of a few millimeters at a temperature range of 1250 ◦ C to 1350 ◦ C for
More than 98% relative density was achieved at sintering temperatures of 1300 ◦ C

Summary

Introduction

Academic Editor: Dae-Cheol KoThe influence of micro-systems technology has increased over the past few decades.The world market has emphasized producing downsized products [1–3]. The micro-powder injection molding (μPIM) process, a transfiguration of the powder injection molding (PIM). Process, is a commercially viable approach to fabricate metal and ceramic-based microsized components [4–7]. Process modifies the μPIM process to join two dissimilar materials at the micro-scale. The cost-effective production advantages and opportunities to employ a broad range of materials have established the 2C-μPIM as a remarkable manufacturing process in modern times. The 2C-μPIM-processed magnetic and nonmagnetic bi-metal components were fabricated by Imgrund et al [10] to study their viability in various microapplications. Ruh et al [8] produced a shaft-to-collar connection employing 2C-μPIM to validate the feasibility of their selected materials. For long-term sustainability in the global market, it is critical that the 2C-μPIM technology exhibits superior productivity and adequacy to produce non-defective components

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