M.I.M. technology is the best solution for producing metallic structural components with a very complex geometry.
The feedstock, which is a mix of metallic powder and polymeric binder is injected in a mold using a machine similar to the one for plastic injection molding. This allows the freedom and flexibility in design that characterize plastic injection molding but, at the end, a metallic part with high geometric complexity is produced. Once the component (green body) has been injected, a treatment to eliminate the binder is needed. The debinding process can be divided in two steps: the first one which takes place in hot water and the second one that takes place in a furnace for thermal debinding.
The elimination of the polymeric binder leads to a metallic powder mass (brown body) that has the shape of the final component and is ready for the final step, sintering. During sintering, the metallic powder mass start to bond and, at the end, a fully densified metallic component is produced. Thanks to our molybdenum or graphite furnaces we are able to sinter under vacuum, high vacuum and in a gas protective atmosphere.
The whole production chain, from mold design to sintering and subsequently quality control, is carried out in our facilities in order to have a direct dialogue with our costumer, specially in the designing step. At present our production is mainly based on austenitic stainless steel AISI 316L, martensitic stainless steel 17-4 PH, and titanium biomedical alloy Ti-6-Al-4V materials.