Size Effect in Sintering of Micro Metal Injection Molded Part

Micro gears with different dimension were fabricated by micro metal injection molding and sintering behavior of the micro gear was investigated. For this, ultraprecision micro molds were prepared by micro electroforming. The sintered micro gears had outer diameter of 470μm and 250 μm, respectively. From the sintering results at 1200°C and 1250°C, the grain growth and the degree of thermal etching depend dominantly on the size of micro part rather than micro feature size. The sintering temperature of micro parts should be lower than that of macro components.