Materials Letters 59 (2005) 2832 2837

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Copper injection molding using a thermoplastic binder based on

paraffin wax
L. Moballegh*, J. Morshedian, M. Esfandeh
Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute, P.O. Box 14965/115, Tehran, Iran

Received 18 August 2004; accepted 28 April 2005

Available online 31 May 2005

Abstract

In this work the processing steps for producing copper parts by means of metal injection molding technique were investigated.
Different feedstocks were prepared from gas atomized copper powder and a thermoplastic binder based on paraffin wax. The optimum
formulation of 95 / 5 wt/wt (copper powder / binder) was selected from rheological investigation and then the suitable feedstock was
injected successfully at low pressure. The molded specimens were debinded by solvent debinding followed by thermal debinding methods
and were sintered under argon atmosphere. It was observed that injection molding of a feedstock containing 66% by volume of copper
powder was possible at low pressure and the sintered parts were free from defects and dimensional shrinkage was nearly the same in three
dimensions.
D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Powder technology; Metal injection molding; Debinding; Sintering; Copper

1. Introduction rheological properties for injection molding. The mixture

Metal injection molding (MIM) is a relatively new
process in powder metallurgy for shaping metals and
ceramics near net shapes with reasonably tight tolerance
and good surface finishes. The process is generally viable
for all shapes, which can be formed by means of plastic
injection molding. It enables production of low cost, high
performance and complex geometries and it is the main
competitor of investment casting for producing small parts
in large quantities [1 3].
Atypical MIM process, which is shown in Fig. 1,
comprises four stages of mixing, injection molding,
debinding and sintering.
1. In the mixing step, metal powder is mixed with minimum
amount of a binder, which provides the necessary
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 4580000 to 19; fax: +98 21 4580023.
E-mail address: L.Moballegh@ippi.ac.ir (L. Moballegh).
0167-577X/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2005.04.027
must be homogenous and free from agglomeration.
Mixing deficiencies only manifest themselves at subse-
quent processing steps such as molding, debinding and
sintering [2].
2. In the molding step, the feedstock is injected into a
mold, where it takes the shape of the mold and hardens
through cooling. Conventional plastic injection molding
equipment is used to mold the feedstock into desired
shapes. Although the flow behavior of MIM is similar to
that of plastic injection molding, typical MIM feedstocks
flow less easily and freeze faster than plastics due to
their high viscosity and thermal conductivity which
results in incomplete mold filling, especially in thin
sections [2].
3. After molding, the binder must be removed from molded
specimens. Various debinding techniques have been
developed for this purpose. The main techniques can
be classified into thermal and solvent debindings.
Thermal debinding is perhaps the most commonly used
technique, which is often very slow and debinding
 L. Moballegh et al. / Materials Letters 59 (2005) 2832 2837
Fig. 1. Metal injection molding processing steps [1].
durations of several days are not uncommon, while in
solvent debinding, the binder is removed by dissolving
one or more binder components with significantly faster
speed [2].
4. Finally, sintering provides strong interparticle bonds
between powder particles and removes and reduces the
void spaces by means of densification, so high linear
shrinkage of 10 20% takes place in the specimens. The
resulted density can reach over 97% of the theoretical
value, depending on the powder properties like initial
density and type of material and also sintering conditions
such as atmosphere, temperature, heating rate and
sintering time [2].
Although, MIM technique can be used for shaping
various metal powders, most of researches in this field have
been limited to iron, steel and their alloy powders due to
their widespread use in various applications such as
producing automobile parts, office machinery and medical
and dental instruments, while there are no significant reports
of using copper powder which is applicable in producing
some special copper products such as heat sinks.
In this work, production of pure copper parts via
injection molding method was investigated. For this
purpose, a binder based on paraffin wax, which is the most
popular binder system due to the ease of processing and
short debinding time [3] was used. Feedstocks with different
2833
powder loadings were prepared and the best one was
selected for injection molding. Injection molding was
performed at low pressure. A combination of solvent
debinding and thermal debinding was used for removing
binder from specimens and defect free copper parts were
prepared after debinding and sintering.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
The metal powder used in this work was gas atomized
copper powder (supplied by Khorasan powder metallurgy
Co, Iran) with an average particle size of <10 microns,
SEM micrograph of the powder (Fig. 2) reveals a
spherical morphology and a broad particle size distribu-
tion which helps packing and densification in processing
steps.
The binder ingredients used in this work included
paraffin wax (A-300-9, Rose Polymer Co, Iran) as a major
component and polyethylene (5620 EA, from Tabriz
Petrochemical Complex, Iran) as a minor and stearic acid
(800673, Merck) as a surface active agent. The composition
of the binder system used is given in Table 1.
2.2. Process
Mixing of the copper powder with the binder was
carried out in a Haake Rheocord mixer with banbury rotor
at 140 -C and speed of 60 rpm for 30 min and three
different feedstocks with 61.7, 66.2 and 71.2 vol.% (94,
95, and 96 wt.%) copper powder were prepared. A vertical
plunger injection machine (HEK-GMBH Lubeck) with
dumbbell and strip shaped molds was used for injection
molding. The dumbbell mold dimensions were 177.6 mm
length, 18.9 mm width (in wider sections) and 4.7 mm
thickness and the strip shaped mold dimensions were
65  14  3 mm. Debinding was performed in two stages
of solvent debinding by hexane solvent followed by
Fig. 2. Scanning electron micrograph of copper powder 500.
2834 L. Moballegh et al. / Materials Letters 59 (2005) 2832 2837

Table 1
The binder composition
Binder constituents Density (g/cm3)
Paraffin wax 0.89 0.91
Polyethylene 0.954 0.957
Stearic acid 0.96
thermal debinding in a tubular furnace with 1 m length
and 12 cm diameter under argon atmosphere with flow
rate of 0.6 lit/min and then sintering was carried out in the
same furnace under argon atmosphere.
2.3. Test methods
Rheological properties were measured by a capillary
rheometer (Instrun 3211) with capillary diameter of 1.75
mm and L / D = 28.91. Thermal degradation properties were
determined by Perkin Elmer, thermal gravimetrical ana-
lyzer, under nitrogen atmosphere and heating rate of 10
-C/min. A scanning electron microscope (Cambridge-
S360) was used to observe the micrograph of specimens.
Density of sintered parts was determined by the Archi-
medes method. Also, coke and oxygen residue after
sintering were measured by LECO and XRF equipments,
respectively.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Rheological properties
Generally, it is desired to incorporate a maximum amount of
metal powder to minimize subsequent sintering shrinkage and
increase dimensional precision while maintaining sufficient binder
to retain good flow behavior. Increasing of powder loading results
in higher viscosity and also higher sensitivity to shear rate and
temperature that is not desired for injection molding hence an
optimum powder loading must be found. In literature, it is noted
that in the shear rate range of 100 1000 (s 1), which is usual in
mixing and injection molding, viscosity of feedstock must be
lower than 1000 Pa.s leading to lower shear and temperature
sensitivity [4].
Tm (-C) Weight % Viscosity of three feedstocks with powder loadings of
60 65 65 61.9, 66.2, and 71.2 vol.% are compared in Fig. 3, which
130 30 indicates the effect of powder loading increase on viscosity at
67 69 5 100(s 1) and 160 -C. As can be seen increasing of powder
loading significantly increases the viscosity. For the feedstock
with 71.2 vol.% powder loading the viscosity becomes more
than 1000 Pa.s, which is not suitable for injection molding.
So the feedstock with 66.2 vol.% (95 wt.%) powder loading,
which has suitable viscosity, and higher powder loading is
preferred.
Also, in Fig. 4 viscosity changes of the feedstock containing
95 wt.% of copper powder versus shear rate at different
temperatures is shown. As can be seen the feedstock viscosity
at 130 160 -C and at 100 1000 (1/s) is still less than 1000 Pa.s
and its shear sensitivity decreases with increasing of shear rate so
that at shear rate range of 100 1000 (1/s) the sensitivity is fairly
low. Besides, the temperature sensitivity at that shear rate range is
also low.
3.2. Thermal degradation properties
The thermal degradation properties of the feedstock with 95
wt.% copper powder are shown in Fig. 5. The TGA curve shows
two stages decomposition so that paraffin wax and polyethylene
are degrading from 170 to 350 -C and from 350 to 500 -C,
respectively.
As it is shown, binder degradation starts at 171 -C, thus the
processing temperatures such as the mixing and injection molding
temperatures must be lower in order that binder degradation
doesnt occur.
3.3. Injection molding
The feedstock was injected at 160 -C and 5.5 6 bars with the
mold temperature of 50 60 -C and specimens with dumbbell and
strip shapes were obtained. Fig. 6 shows the figure of runner and
gate of dumbbell and strip molds. The injection molding below
160 -C at the maximum available injection pressure of 6 bars was
not successful. However this temperature is relatively high, but
the injection molding was performed in a short time and after

100000
10000

10000
Viscosity (Pa.s)
Viscosity (Pa.s)

1000

1000

130
100 145
100
160

10
10 1 10 100 1000
50 60 70 80 90 100 Shear rate(1/s)
Powder vol
Fig. 4. Viscosity versus shear rate for the feedstock with 95 wt.% powder at
Fig. 3. Effect of powder loading on viscosity of feedstocks. different temperatures.
 L. Moballegh et al. / Materials Letters 59 (2005) 2832 2837 2835

Fig. 5. TGA curve of the feedstock with 95 wt.% copper powder.

injection, no sign of bubble formation within specimens was
observed.
In case of dumbbell shaped specimens no sign of defects was
observed. In case of strip shaped specimens, injection molding
was often encountered with jetting problem, which is the
common problem of injecting these feedstocks and may be
related to the improper mold design or high injection speed. It
was observed that with increasing of mold temperature this
problem could be improved.
3.4. Debinding
For safe and rapid binder removal with minimum possibility
of cracks and blister formation, solvent debinding followed by
thermal debinding was used. The multi-component binder chosen
includes the lower stability components of paraffin wax and
stearic acid, which are removed in early stage of debinding and
generate pore channels inside of the part that allow gaseous
products of degradation of remaining binder harmlessly diffuse
out of the structure while HDPE has a function of holding
particles together during and after extracting lower stability
components to maintain the part shape.
Solvent debinding was performed by means of hexane as a
solvent at 60 -C only for 45 min. After solvent debinding, the
specimens had good strength, which was enough to be handled
easily.
Fig. 7 shows the paraffin wax weight loss versus time for the
specimens with 5  18  10 mm dimensions. As it is shown after
45 min, 60% and after 3.5 h, 92% of paraffin wax can be
removed. It is considered that after removing 40% of binder,
there exists some interconnected capillary porosity inside of
specimen which makes leaving of gaseous products in subsequent
thermal debinding easy in short time [5]. Since nearly 60% of
paraffin wax was removed in solvent debinding step, subsequent
thermal debinding can be performed with higher speed in
comparison with usual thermal debinding process.
The following heating cycle was used for thermal debinding.
From room temperature to 100 -C the temperature increased
with heating rate of 5 -C/min and from 100 250 -C paraffin
wax was removed from the specimen by lower heating rate of 1
-C/min to prevent defects formation and held at that temper-
ature for 30 min. Next, from 250 to 500 -C polyethylene
100
90
80
Paraffin wax weight loss

70

60
50
40

30
20
10
0
0 60 120 180 240
Extraction time (min)

Fig. 7. Rate of decreasing weight of paraffin wax with time in solvent

Fig. 6. The figure of runner and gate of dumbbell and strip molds. debinding.
2836 L. Moballegh et al. / Materials Letters 59 (2005) 2832 2837
Fig. 8. Scanning electron micrograph of a debinded specimen at 500 -C,
1500.
removed with higher rate of 2 -C/min and remained at 500 -C
for 30 min.
Fig. 8 shows scanning electron micrograph of a debinded
specimen cross-section. As can be seen, nearly all the binder has
been removed from the specimen.
3.5. Sintering
In this stage, temperature increased from 500 -C to the sintering
temperature with the rate of 10 -C/min under argon atmosphere
and held at that temperature for 1 h. Sintering was performed at
980 -C [6]. For studying the effect of temperature increase on
specimen density, the sintering temperature of 1030 -C was also
used. After sintering, it was not observed any signs of defects such
as blister and crack in the specimens and measured coke and
oxygen residue were 0.09 and 0.5 wt.%, respectively. The Fig. 9
shows the tensile fracture surface of the sintered specimen. As
shown, the pores are closed, rounded and distributed nearly
uniform.
3.6. Sintered properties
It was observed that with increasing of sintering temperature
from 980 to 1030 -C, density increased from 8 to 8.18 g/cm3 and
also tensile strength increased from 160.1 to 180 MPa. Increasing
Fig. 9. Scanning electron micrograph of a sintered specimen at 1030 -C,
500.
Table 2
Dimensional shrinkage of dumbbell shaped specimens
Dimension Shrinkage %
Length 11.31
Width 11.21
Thickness 11.27
of density in this temperature range was only 2%. The observed
density of 8.18 g/cm3 is nearly 92% of the theoretical density.
However the technology has the ability of attaining over 97% of
theoretical one, so for achieving a higher density and also better
mechanical properties of sintered parts, some of the processing
conditions should be optimized.
3.7. Dimensional shrinkage
For investigating the shrinkage quality, specimen dimensions
before and after sintering were measured. Table 2 shows the
amount of shrinkage in three dimensions and in Fig. 10 a sintered
specimen beside a green one is shown. As can be seen shrinkage is
almost the same in three dimensions, which indicates that the
feedstock homogeneity is relatively good.
4. Conclusions
& Injection molding of a feedstock containing a high
copper powder loading of 66.2 vol.% can be performed
at low pressure successfully.
& Debinding and sintering of molded parts by the used
solvent and thermal debinding methods and the heating
program can result in a defect free specimen.
& Dimensional shrinkage in sintered parts shows that
shrinkage is nearly the same in three dimensions so it
can be concluded that the feedstock is fairly homoge-
neous by the mixing method used.
& The sintered part had 92% of the theoretical density and
the sintering temperature changes above 980 -C did not
considerably influence density.
Fig. 10. A sintered dumbbell specimen (a) beside a green one (b).
 L. Moballegh et al. / Materials Letters 59 (2005) 2832 2837 2837

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