Investigation of Rheological Behavior of Low Pressure Injection Molded Stainless Steel Feedstocks

The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of different powder loadings of 316L stainless steel (SS) powders on rheological behavior of feedstocks required for low pressure powder injection molding (L-PIM) process. The main idea consists in development of various formulations by varying 316L SS powder contents in feedstocks and evaluating the temperature sensitivity of feedstock via flow behavior index and activation energy. For this purpose, the irregular shape, spherical shape, and combination of both shapes and sizes (bimodal approach) of 316L SS powders are compounded with wax based composite binder. Moreover, the influence of elemental nanosized boron ( n B) addition (up to 1.5 wt.%) on rheological properties of irregular shape 316L SS powders is also evaluated using capillary rheometer method. It is observed that rheological parameters for solid powder loading of powder gas atomized (PGA) and bimodal powder P25/75 316L SS underwent sudden change from PGA-69 vol.% to PGA-72 vol.% and P25/75-67 vol.% to P25/75 316L SS 70 vol.%, respectively. Thus it is concluded that PGA-69 vol.% and P25/75-67 vol.% are optimal powder solid loadings corresponding to the lowest values of activation energies.