Powder Injection Molding of Ti6Al4V Alloy

An improved wax-based binder was developed for powder injection molding of Ti6Al4V alloy. The molding behavior, debinding kinetics and sintering process were studied. Components with relative density of 96.5% were produced with PIM process. The density of the components was increased up to 99% by HIP treatment. The tensile properties of the alloy were as follows: tensile strength 1060MPa, yield stress 960MPa, elongation 9.5%, which are equivalent to those of the same alloy made with traditional press-sintering process. The dimension deviation of the sintered samples could be controlled in the range of +/-0.03mm with the optimized processing parameters.