Thermal, Solvent, and Vacuum Debinding Mechanisms of PIM Compacts

Abstract

The mechanisms of thermal, solvent, and vacuum debinding processes for powder injection molded (PIM) compacts were investigated. Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations on PIM specimens showed that fine interconnected pores were developed in the early stages of debinding in all three processes. These pores were formed as a result of the decomposition of low temperature binders such as paraffin wax during thermal debinding or arise from the extraction of soluble binder components in solvent debinding. In the later stages of thermal and vacuum debinding, decomposed gases could be trapped in the center region and build up a pressure causing cracking or blistering defects. The solvent debinding process could alleviate these problems, but the penetration of solvent into the binder could still cause cracking or distortion due to swelling of the binder. It was found that the pore structure evolution was influenced by the heating rate, temperature, pore size, and the amount of existing porosity. From the observed microstructure and mercury porosimetry data, debinding mechanisms were derived and the defects which were frequently seen during debinding were explained with these mechanisms.