Research progress on metal injection molding of aluminum alloys

Abstract

Aluminum and aluminum alloys have the characteristics as low density, corrosion resistance, high specific strength, and good thermal conductivity, which are widely used in transportation, electronic products, medical, and chemical industries as the lightweight and functional components. Metal powder injection (MIM) can achieve the low-cost and efficient manufacturing of the fine and complex aluminum alloy products, exhibiting the satisfactory mechanical properties, uniform microstructure, and high dimensional accuracy. Development of Al-MIM technology plays an important role in promoting the industrialization of injection molded Al alloy parts and accelerating the application in electronic information products, medical devices, and new energy vehicles. The development status of metal powder injection molding for aluminum alloys was introduced in this paper, the effects of feeding requirements, binder composition design, degreasing method, atmosphere sintering system, and action mechanism on the sintering densification were reviewed, and the problems to be solved and the development direction were prospected.

Keywords

• aluminum alloys
• metal powder injection molding
• binder
• degreasing
• sintering densification