Powder Technology, Vol.269, 227-232, 2015
Analysis of rheological behaviour of titanium feedstocks formulated with a water-soluble binder system for powder injection moulding
Binder selection and formulation are critical in powder injection moulding. Binders play a key role in controlling the rheological properties of a feedstock and influence whether the resulting feedstock can be successfully injection moulded, debound and sintered without defects. A four-step process was used to mix hydride-dehydride titanium alloy (processed) powder (Ti-6Al-4V) with a polyethylene glycol (PEG) based water soluble binder system. The rheological properties, including flow behaviour index, flow activation energy, fluidity and melt flow index of the homogeneous feedstock, were determined with a capillary rheometer. All feedstock formulations exhibited shear thinning flow behaviour. The optimum feedstock consisting of 60 vol.% powder content, 32 vol.% PEG, 6 vol.% polyvinyl butyryl and 2 vol.% stearic acid was suitable for titanium injection moulding. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Powder injection moulding;Rheological properties;Polyethylene glycol;Titanium;Binder;Feedstock