2759 Analysis of Sintering Shrinkage in Micro Porous Metals Produced by Powder Space Holder Method

Abstract

A novel production method for the metal components has been developed by applying powder space holder (PSH) method to metal injection molding (MIM) process. Micro porous metals which have controlled closed or open pore structures are produced by PSH-MIM method. It is important for producing the products with high-quality to understand the effects of material combination and sintering temperature on pore size and porosity. The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the numerical analysis for their prediction. The analytical results showed the similar tendency to the experimental ones on sintering shrinkage of porous metals prepared using various volume fractions of space holding particle.