Evaluation of mechanical properties for nickel based steel produced by metal injection moulding and sintered through conventional and microwave method

Metal injection moulding is a near net shape manufacturing technique. It developed from traditional plastic injection moulding and powder metallurgy process. The process involved mixing of metal powder and binder, injection moulding, debinding and sintering of moulded samples. Microwave process indicated critical consideration towards exceptional highlights, regards to, heating and sintering the various grouping of metals with the huge preferred perspective, control rate, and similarity, low ecological dangers. The samples consist of SS316L+WC-CrC-Ni metal powder and binders, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), paraffin wax (PW), stearic acid (SA) and polyethylene glycol (PEG 600). In the present study, the injection moulded green parts are exposed to high-intensity microwave fields operates at a frequency of 2.45 GHz. for sintering of MIM samples. The whole process time of the microwave-assisted sintering was remarkably less than conventional sintering. The sintering of SS316L+WC-CrC-Ni compact showed better results than those produced by sintering with conventional heating. The current study evaluates the effect of the conventional and microwave sintering on mechanical properties.