Development and characterisation of a biosourced feedstock of superalloy in metal injection moulding process

ABSTRACT

In the metal injection moulding process the binder plays the most important role. It provides fluidity of the feedstock and strength to keep the moulded shape. The goal of this study is to develop an environmentally friendly feedstock of superalloy Inconel 718. For this different binders formulations based on polyethylene glycol and biosourced polymers were studied. Polylactic acid was investigated as biosourced polymer due to his miscibility with the PEG. The results are compared to a standard formulation using polypropylene. The chemical and rheological behaviour of the binder formulation during mixing, injection and debinding process were investigated. Moreover, a powder of superalloy Inconel 718 was chosen to produce a feedstock. The feedstock was characterised like the binders and the interactions between the powder and the binders was also studied. The results show the well adapted formulation of polymer binder to produce a superalloy Inconel 718 feedstock.

This paper is part of a special issue on the Advances in Materials and Processing Technologies (AMPT) 2015 and has subsequently been revised and extended before publication in Powder Metallurgy.

KEYWORDS:

• Metal injection moulding
• Inconel 718
• biosourced polymers
• polyethylene glycol

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Alexandre Royer received the Ph.D. degree in Mechanics in 2016 from University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France. He is currently a post doc job at the Applied Mechanics Department of the Femto-ST Institute, Besançon, France. His main research activity is devoted to the fabrication of complex components by metal injection moulding process.

Thierry Barrière is a professor of the University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France. His main research activity is devoted to the metal injection moulding process.

Jean-Claude Gelin is a professor of the University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France. His main research activity is devoted to the metal injection moulding process.

Loic Hilliou is a principal researcher at the Department of Polymer Engineering at the Institute for Polymers and Composites, Guimaraes, Portugal. His main research focuses on understanding the interplay between material properties (viscoelastic, structural, optical, electrical etc.) and process parameters (e.g. extrusion) which induce such properties.

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to thank the Fond Interministériel Unique: ProPIM project for the financial support.