The Effect of Poly methyl Methacrylate (PMMA) Space-Holder Content on the Structure and Properties of 316L Stainless steel Foam Produced by Metal Injection Moulding
Abstract:
Metal foam is a new class of engineering materials whose properties include low specific densities
and large specific surface areas and suitable for a variety of thermal and mechanical applications.
There are several different manufacturing methods for metal foams. The metal injection moulding
process is capable of producing both closed-cell and open-cell foam with a uniform structure. It
was the method selected for this research. In the process, an inert space-holder powder is mixed
with metal powder and binders and the mixture injected into mould. The space-holder powder is
later removed during debinding, leaving behind porosity. The volume content of the space-holder
determines the porosity of the foam, which has large effects on the foam properties. The metal
powder is then sintered to achieve the final foam structure. In this study, the effect of volume
fraction of space-holder powder, when replacing an equivalent fraction of binder was studied.
Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) powder was used as the space-holder, as it can be completely
removed during the debinding step. The injection moulding feed was composed of 30 percent
volume fraction of 316L stainless steel powder mixed with various volume fraction combinations
of binder and PMMA. Five volume fractions of PMMA were studied, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50
percent. As would be expected, as the volume fraction of PMMA was increased, the total volume
and number of pore increased. The average pore size was measured as 70 micrometer and is smaller
than the average particle size of the PMMA. This is likely due to a combination of shrinkage
resulting from debinding and sintering. With increasing PMMA content the percent porosity per
unit area increased from 26.66 with 30 percent PMMA to 36.24 percent with 45 percent PMMA.
Mechanical testing showed that with increasing PMMA content, the mechanical properties
decreased. The measured elastic modulus decreased from 46 to 39 GPa when the PMMA content
was increased from 30 percent to 45 percent.