In recent years, the metal injection molding technology has mainly developed in two directions: the expansion of the applicable material system, and the high-reliability production equipment developed to meet the unique binder and degreasing technology.
Multi-directional expansion of the material system. Injection molding technology is ideal, can be economically formed, close to the final desired shape, and requires little or no subsequent processing after sintering. This technology is becoming more and more important in the industrial production and application of precision ceramics. In the production of precision ceramics, it is mainly applied to carbides, cermets, inorganic non-metallic ceramics, oxide ceramics, intermetallic compounds and so on.
Taking zirconia ceramic optical fiber ferrules as an example, the use of injection molding technology to prepare the green body can greatly shorten the subsequent processing time. Since the blank formed in the mold cavity already has a through hole with a certain precision, the subsequent grinding process is reduced to one-third to one-fourth of the extrusion molding, which improves the production efficiency and greatly reduces the production cost.