Abstract
The surface energy of various mold materials for low-pressure powder injection molding was evaluated using values of contact angles (Owens–Wendt method), and correlated with the feedstock moldability and mold adhesion. The surface tension of the binder used to formulate a metallic-based feedstock was also measured in the molten state at a typical injection temperature using the pendant drop technique. Real-scale injection tests were performed into metallic and polymeric mold cavities to assess the feedstock moldability and its adhesion with the mold surfaces that were compared with theoretical predictions obtained from the surface energies values. The results confirmed that the adhesion was significantly affected by the interfacial energy between the mold and the binder—in this case, the metallic mold exhibited low adhesion as compared to the polymeric mold. It was finally demonstrated that the adhesion phenomenon is only related to the surface properties of the mold (i.e., they are not related to the solidification rate)—in this case, a gold-coated polymeric mold produced the moldability of a polymeric mold and the adhesion properties of a metallic mold, which translated into a high moldability potential, with no resulting adhesion of the feedstock with the mold.
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00170-023-11148-z/MediaObjects/170_2023_11148_Fig1_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00170-023-11148-z/MediaObjects/170_2023_11148_Fig2_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00170-023-11148-z/MediaObjects/170_2023_11148_Fig3_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00170-023-11148-z/MediaObjects/170_2023_11148_Fig4_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00170-023-11148-z/MediaObjects/170_2023_11148_Fig5_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00170-023-11148-z/MediaObjects/170_2023_11148_Fig6_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00170-023-11148-z/MediaObjects/170_2023_11148_Fig7_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00170-023-11148-z/MediaObjects/170_2023_11148_Fig8_HTML.png)
Similar content being viewed by others
References
González-Gutiérrez J, Stringari GB, Emri I (2012) Powder injection molding of metal and ceramic parts. INTECH Open Access Publisher. https://doi.org/10.5772/38070
Saha B, Toh WQ, Liu E, Tor SB, Hardt DE, Lee J (2015) A review on the importance of surface coating of micro/nano-mold in micro/nano-molding processes. J Micromech Microeng 26(1):013002. https://doi.org/10.1088/0960-1317/26/1/013002
Momeni V, Hufnagl M, Shahroodi Z, Gonzalez-Gutierrez J, Schuschnigg S, Kukla C, Holzer C (2023) Research progress on low-pressure powder injection molding. Materials 16(1):379. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16010379
German RM (2008) PIM breaks the $1 bn barrier. Met Powder Rep 63:8–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0026-0657(08)70036-5
Ruprecht R, Gietzelt T, Müler K, Piotter V, Haußelt J (2002) Injection molding of microstructured components from plastics, metals and ceramics. Microsyst Technol 8:351–358. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-001-0153-7
Kafkas F, Ebel T (2014) Metallurgical and mechanical properties of Ti–24Nb–4Zr–8Sn alloy fabricated by metal injection molding. J Alloys Compd 617:359–366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2014.07.168
Ozgun O, Gulsoy HO, Yilmaz R, Findik F (2013) Microstructural and mechanical characterization of injection molded 718 superalloy powders. J Alloys Compd 576:140–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2013.04.042
Özgün Ö, Yılmaz R, Özkan Gülsoy H, Fındık F (2015) The effect of aging treatment on the fracture toughness and impact strength of injection molded Ni-625 superalloy parts. Mater Charact 108:8–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchar.2015.08.006
Raza MR, Ahmad F, Muhamad N, Sulong AB, Omar MA, Akhtar MN, Aslam M (2016) Effects of solid loading and cooling rate on the mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of powder injection molded 316 L stainless steel. Powder Technol 289:135–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2015.11.063
Demers V, Fareh F, Turenne S, Demarquette NR, Scalzo O (2018) Experimental study on moldability and segregation of Inconel 718 feedstocks used in low-pressure powder injection molding. Adv Powder Technol 29:180–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apt.2017.10.025
Thavanayagam G, Pickering KL, Swan JE, Cao P (2015) Analysis of rheological behaviour of titanium feedstocks formulated with a water-soluble binder system for powder injection moulding. Powder Technol 269:227–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2014.09.020
Demers V, Turenne S, Scalzo O (2015) Impact of binders on viscosity of low-pressure powder injection molded Inconel 718 superalloy. J Mater Sci 50:2893–2902. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apt.2017.10.025
Fareh F, Demers V, Demarquette NR, Turenne S, Scalzo O (2016) Molding properties of Inconel 718 feedstocks used in low-pressure powder injection molding. Adv Mater Sci Eng 2016. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/7078045
Li Y-M, Huang B-Y, Qu X-H (1999) Viscosity and melt rheology of metal injection moulding feedstocks. Powder Metall 42:86–90. https://doi.org/10.1179/pom.1999.42.1.86
Heaney DF (2019) Handbook of metal injection molding. Woodhead Publishing
Hausnerova B (2017) Binder systems for powder injection molding: a review. Adv Mater Proc 2(12):761–768. https://doi.org/10.5185/amp.2017/873
Kurusu RS, Demarquette NR (2018) Surface modification to control the water wettability of electrospun mats. Intern Mater Rev 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/09506608.2018.1484577
Babaei S, Girard-Lauriault PL (2016) Tuning the surface properties of oxygen-rich and nitrogen-rich plasma polymers: functional groups and surface charge. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 36:651–666. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-015-9682-1
Kietzig AM, Negar Mirvakili M, Kamal S, Englezos P, Hatzikiriakos SG (2011) Laser-patterned super-hydrophobic pure metallic substrates: Cassie to Wenzel wetting transitions. J Adhes Sci Technol 25(20):2789–2809. https://doi.org/10.1163/016942410X549988
Ling EJY, Uong V, Renault-Crispo JS, Kietzig AM, Servio P (2016) Reducing ice adhesion on nonsmooth metallic surfaces: wettability and topography effects. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 8(13):8789–8800. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b00187
Genna S, Giannini O, Guarino S, Ponticelli GS, Tagliaferri F (2020) Laser texturing of AISI 304 stainless steel: experimental analysis and genetic algorithm optimisation to control the surface wettability. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 110:3005–3022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-06073-4
Chen Z, Yang J, Liu H, Zhao Y, Pan R (2022) A short review on functionalized metallic surfaces by ultrafast laser micromachining. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 119(11–12):6919–6948. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-08560-8
Sappati KK, Rout B, Girard-Lauriault PL, Bhadra S (2020) Plasma treatment of composite piezoelectric thin films for good adhesion of printed conductive ink. ACS Appl Polym Mater 3(1):319–328. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.0c01117
Hemrick JG, Starr TL, Rosen DW (2001) Release behavior for powder injection molding in stereolithography molds. Rapid Prototyp J 7(2):115–121. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552540110386772
Aho J, Boetker J, Baldursdottir S, Rantanen J (2015) Rheology as a tool for evaluation of melt processability of innovative dosage forms. Intern J Pharm 494:623–642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2015.02.009
Hausnerova B, Bleyan D, Kasparkova V, Pata V (2016) Surface adhesion between ceramic injection molding feedstocks and processing tools. Ceram Int 42(1):460–465. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2015.08.132
Żenkiewicz M (2007) Methods for the calculation of surface free energy of solids. J Achiev Mater Manuf Eng 24:137–145
Yuan Y, Lee TR (2013) Contact angle and wetting properties, Surface science techniques. Springer
Owens DK, Wendt R (1969) Estimation of the surface free energy of polymers. J Appl Polym Sci 13:1741–1747. https://doi.org/10.1002/app.1969.070130815
Daerr A, Mogne A (2016) Pendent drop: an imagej plugin to measure the surface tension from an image of a pendent drop. J Open Res Softw 4:1. https://doi.org/10.5334/jors.97
Mary B, Dubois C, Carreau PJ, Brousseau P (2006) Rheological properties of suspensions of polyethylene-coated aluminum nanoparticles. Rheol Acta 45:561–573. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-006-0095-1
Majewska-Glabus I, Zhuang L, Vetter R, Duszczyk J (1995) Thermal debinding of Fe3Al-X metal powder compacts. J Mater Sci 30:6209–6217. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00369668
Leverkoehne M, Coronel-Hernandez J, Dirscherl R, Gorlov I, Janssen R, Claussen N (2001) Novel binder system based on paraffin-wax for low-pressure injection molding of metal-ceramic powder mixtures. Adv Eng Mater 3:995–998. https://doi.org/10.1002/1527-2648(200112)3:12%3c995::AID-ADEM995%3e3.0.CO;2-D
Ahn S, Park SJ, Lee S, Atre SV, German RM (2009) Effect of powders and binders on material properties and molding parameters in iron and stainless steel powder injection molding process. Powder Technol 193:162–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2009.03.010
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) (2009) Surface Texture (Surface Roughness, Waviness, and Lay). New York. Standard No. B46.1, 2009
Kurusu RS, Demarquette NR (2017) Surface properties evolution in electrospun polymer blends by segregation of hydrophilic or amphiphilic molecules. Eur Polym J 89:129–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2017.02.016
Peet MJ, Hasan HS, Bhadeshia HKDH (2011) Prediction of thermal conductivity of steel. Intern J Heat Mass Transf 54:2602–2608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2011.01.025
Price DM, Jarratt M (2002) Thermal conductivity of PTFE and PTFE composites. Thermochim Acta 392–393:231–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-6031(02)00105-3
Callies M, Quéré D (2005) On water repellency. Soft Matter 1:55–61. https://doi.org/10.1039/B501657F
Packham DE (2003) Surface energy, surface topography and adhesion. Intern J Adhes Adhes 23:437–448. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0143-7496(03)00068-X
Hwang DS, Zeng H, Srivastava A, Krogstad DV, Tirrell M, Israelachvili JN, Waite JH (2010) Viscosity and interfacial properties in a mussel-inspired adhesive coacervate. Soft Matter 6:3232–3236. https://doi.org/10.1039/C002632H
Priftis D, Farina R, Tirrell M (2012) Interfacial energy of polypeptide complex coacervates measured via capillary adhesion. Langmuir 28:8721–8729. https://doi.org/10.1021/la300769d
Das S, Lahiri D, Lee D-Y, Agarwal A, Choi W (2013) Measurements of the adhesion energy of graphene to metallic substrates. Carbon 59:121–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2013.02.063
Kurusu R, Gholami M, Demarquette N R, Demers V, Ouarab L (2022) Mold for metal injection molding. US Patent Application (63/287,186)
Funding
This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) under Grant #EGP2 513741 – 17.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by R. S. Kurusu and M. Gholami, while analysis were performed by R. S. Kurusu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by R. S. Kurusu and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Kurusu, R.S., Gholami, M., Demarquette, N.R. et al. Surface properties of molds for powder injection molding and their effect on feedstock moldability and mold adhesion. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 126, 381–390 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11148-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11148-z