Simulation and modeling of macro and micro components produced by powder injection molding: A review

During the recent years powder processing technologies have gained much attention due to the less energy consumption and recyclable powders. Manufacturing of complicated parts by the conventional powder metallurgy (PM) method is hard due to the uniaxial pressure, which leads to the low design flexibility. In order to prevail these constraints, powder injection molding (PIM) process, which includes powder metallurgy and injection molding processes, is introduced. In powder injection molding, simulations are a very useful tool to predict each step of process and design the mold. By this way, design can already be optimized and mistakes are avoided. In this review a detailed study of simulation of different steps in the powder injection molding process of macro and micro components produced by this method is presented. Simulation investigations of mixing, injection, debinding, and sintering of various researchers are given. The computer simulation tools available for all steps of the PIM process are surveyed and results are presented.