Orgasol® powder: A binder for powders injection molding feedstocks
Metal injection molding (MIM) and ceramic injection molding (CIM) technologies is mainly used to produce small parts for the automotive, medical, electrical and electronic industries, including plastic magnets for electrical motors.
Orgasol® powder is a key polymer with a wide range of properties that improve products performance.
The benefits of Orgasol® powder vary depending on the final application.
Plastic magnets
Orgasol® powder is used as a binder with soft magnetic material powders (such as metal oxides and rare earths). After being compounded and injected into pellets, the blend produces high quality magnets.
Orgasol® acts as a solid lubricant facilitating the powder-blending step. During the compounding and injection step, Orgasol® powder helps to maintain a low melt viscosity.
This low viscosity allows to introduce higher amounts of soft magentic powder in the compound. This is the key to create thinner plastic magnets parts.
Compared to other polymers, Orgasol® polyamide powder achieves high mechanical properties while reducing the sensitivity of the plastic magnets to humidity.
Metal injection molding (MIM)
One challenge in the metal injection molding technology is making tiny molded parts at high yield, like those used in medical implants or micro system technology such as digital camerasand automotive engins.
Due to its small and defined particle size, Orgasol® acts as a solid lubricant improving the homogeneity of the powder-blending step.
Due to its mechanical properties and capacity to bond the metallic powders, Orgasol® is a major component used in the binder that strengthens the final green parts allowing them to be quickly ejected from the mold without damage.
The melting temperature of copolyamide Orgasol® (around 143°C) is also very suitabel for manufacturing and processing of the MIM feedstocks.
The final processing step is to get rid of the thermoplastic binder by a pyrolysis at a high temperature (>500°C). The advantage of Orgasol® ultrafine polyamide powder is that it doesn't emit toxic compounds during the pyrolysis.