Sintering Supports

During the debinding and high temperature sintering processes, molded parts (or green parts) shrink about 20%. While the parts are shrinking and before the parts can fully densify, the forces of gravity and friction may distort the parts if they are not adequately supported.

To avoid this, ideal MIM designs have a large flat surface or with several component features that have a common plane.

• This design approach allows the use of standard or flat debinding and sintering supports. This avoids the use of custom or part-specific supports which can be expensive to produce and represent added tooling costs for the customer

• If a single flat surface or plane cannot be provided, part specific debinding and sintering supports will be needed

• There are various types of specialized supports that can be used. The simplest type of debinding and sintering support is a ceramic strip. The strips come in different heights and widths to meet the finished parts dimensional requirements

• If the design permits, ceramic strips can be avoided by designing “molded-in” supports. This eliminates the need for the additional tooling costs, but adds a non-functional feature to the component

• Ceramic plates with machined or cast features increase both complexity and cost. We attempt to minimize the cost of these plates by limiting the plate features to holes or grooves. These types of supports are more expensive than simple ceramic strips, but can fully support features that are more complex