Experimental and numerical analysis of metal injection molded products

In this work, the authors performed the experimental and numerical study of a real product realized with metal injection molding. The feedstock material (AISI 316 powder and binder) was initially characterized with specific tests in order to identify viscosity, pressure–volume–temperature and thermal properties. This data were then elaborated using a genetic algorithm approach to fit mathematical material models to use for finite element analysis with a commercial software normally employed for thermoplastic injection molding. At the same time, real part fabrication was performed with the process parameters used for numerical simulations in order to validate numerical results from qualitative and quantitative point of view.