Metal injection molding of pure molybdenum

In this work the processing steps for producing molybdenum parts by means of metal injection molding technique, including milling, mixing, debinding and sintering, were investigated in detail. Different feedstocks were prepared from received and milled molybdenum powder and a thermoplastic binder based on paraffin wax. The feedstock including 50% by volume of milled molybdenum powder had better rheological property and was injected successfully at low pressure. The molded specimens were debinded by two different processes, direct thermal debinding and solvent–thermal debinding. The content of carbon and oxygen were respectively less than 0.060% and 0.0042% after the parts were sintered under hydrogen atmosphere. The parts sintered at 1850 °C for 120 min exhibited a highest density of 9.70 g/cm3,meanwhile the tensile strength and hardness was 229 MPa and 193 HV10, respectively.