DSH Consulting

Feedstock Selection

The type of feedstock you use depends on many elements, including:

We can help you choose the best feedstock for your application and tailor it to your requirements.

Tool Design

The correct tool design is critical in MIM. This includes using the correct shrinkage, and the proper positioning of gates, runners, venting, slides, and parting lines. DSH can analyze your tool design before cutting any metal for a few samples or for prodution. This is performed by a mold flow analysis. While this may seem like an additional expense, in fact the costs are must lower than multiple tool modifications based on trial and error.

We can help you in designing the optimum tool for the part that you want to mold.

DSH Solvent Debind Equipment

 

Solvent, Catalytic or Water Debinding

This debinding is done for removal of the first step primary debinder. The choice of feedstock determines the method to be used for removing the primary binder. For example, water will not debind wax. The equipment used depends on the feedstock and the primary debinding method chosen.

We can help you choose the right feedstock for your product and the equipment for processing it.

 

 

Thermal Debinding/Sintering

The 2nd stage or backbone binder holds the particles together until the material is ready to start forming necks between the particles by diffusion. This binder must be removed without leaving residues in the part in the form of carbon or other inorganic materials, in order to ensure that the composition of the powder is not contaminated or compromised.

The binder must also be removed in a manner slow enough so not to crack or distort the part by the force of the binder material leaving the part. This debinding step is done in the sintering furnace, because after all the binders are removed from the part, the minute necks formed between particles do not result in a part strong enough to be handled.

During sintering, when temperatures are as high as 0.8 times the melting point of the material in degrees Kelvin, the bond between the particles form and grow by the mechanism of solid state diffusion. This leads to the elimination of pores, shrinkage and densification of the part.

The final size of the part depends on the powders used, the binder content of the feedstock, and the shrinkage factor of the feedstock as well as the processing and sintering parameters.

We can help you choose the right equipment, processing and sintering parameters for your material to produce the part that you want.

Setter Design

It is not necessarily enough to choose the right processing parameters to produce the correct part. Parts are made by the MIM process to eliminate machining requirements and obtain a net shape. This often means that the part has to be propped and supported to retain its desired shape and special settering may be needed to do so.

We can help design and have an optimum setter made for your part if you have such a requirement.

Testing for Carbon, Oxygen, Density & Metallographic Analysis

When you make a part, a key question is: does this part meet all the mechanical and chemical property requirements? Often a few simple tests can answer this questions. At DSH we have the capability of testing the carbon and oxygen contents of most alloys. These two tests will tell you how well the part was debound and sintered.  A test for density and a metallographic examination will confirm how well the part was sintered.

We can perform testing to determine how well the part has been sintered and whether you have an optimum process.

R&D/QC Laboratories

Special equipment is needed to study and ensure that the process is performing the way it was designed. 

We can help you determine your needs and fulfill them.