Investigation of powder size effects on sintering of powder injection moulded 17-4PH stainless steel

ABSTRACT

Densification behaviours of 17-4PH stainless steel powders (SUS17-4PH) of three different particle sizes during the sintering were investigated. The samples with different mean particle sizes of 3.17, 4.22 and 8.30 µm were prepared through powder-binder mixing, injection moulding, and solvent and thermal debindings. The in situ shrinkage data measured by dilatometry tests were treated to analyse the densification behaviour of each sample. In order to characterise the densification behaviour with a minimum set of experiments, the master sintering curve (MSC), as well-known and straight-forward approach, was employed. After constructing the MSCs for powders of different particle sizes, the effects of particle size on the densification were analysed in many respects including shrinkage, strain rate, apparent activation energy, and work of sintering.

KEYWORDS:

• Sintering
• master sintering curve
• densification
• 17-4PH stainless steel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dong Yong Park is currently a senior researcher in Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), South Korea. He received his B.S. degree from Pusan National University, South Korea. He achieved his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea. His research fields of specialisation and interest are micro-manufacturing technologies, especially on powder processing technologies including powder metallurgy and powder injection moulding.

Gyu M. Lee is currently a professor in Department of Industrial Engineering, Pusan National University, South Korea. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Seoul National University, South Korea and his Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. He is the editor-in-chief of International Journal of Industrial Engineering: Theory, Applications and Practice and his research area includes operations research, process modelling, data mining and informatics.

Young-Sam Kwon is currently a president in CetaTech, Inc. He received his B.S. degree from Hanyang University, South Korea. He achieved his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Department of Mechanical Engineering at POSTECH, South Korea. His field of specialisation and interest is micro-manufacturing technologies for various industrial applications.

Yong Jun Oh is currently a professor in Hanbat National University. He received his B.S. degree from Yonsei University, South Korea. He achieved his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Department of Material Science at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea. His fields of specialisation and interest are materials technologies for micro-joining, coating and thin-films.

Seong Lee is currently a principle researcher in Agency for Defense Development. He received his M.S. degree from ­­­Kyungpook University, South Korea. He achieved his Ph.D. degree in Department of Material Science at Chungnam National University, South Korea. His fields are the sintering and development of manufacturing process on refractory materials.

Myeong-Sik Jeong is currently a principle researcher in Korea Institute of Industrial Research (KITECH). He received his B.S. degree from Kyungpook National University, South Korea. He achieved his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Department of Mechanical Engineering at Seoul National University, South Korea. His field of specialisation and interest is an analysis of plasticity behaviour through numerical approach.

Seong Jin Park is currently a professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea. He achieved his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Department of Mechanical Engineering at POSTECH. Before joining POSTECH as a professor, he had extensive working experiences. He had worked as a research engineer at LG Electronics, started the venture company CetaTech and worked as an associate research professor in Mississippi State University U.S.A. His research filed is focused on the micro-manufacturing technologies, especially on polymer-assisted powder metallurgy and multi-scale simulation technologies.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 2011-0030075) and conducted under the frame work of research and development program of the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) (B7-2414-03).