DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF GRANULATE BASED ON 12Х18Н10ТI STAINLESS STEEL POWDER FOR MIM TECHNOLOGY

Stainless steel powders occupy an important place in modern materials science as a promising raw material for the production of high-precision parts of complex geometry with minimal tolerances. The technology of metal powder casting using polymer binders Metal Injection Molding (MIM), which allows combining the advantages of powder metallurgy and plastic molding, has become the most widespread in industry. The method under consideration is particularly in demand in the manufacture of miniature components for responsible engineering purposes, where traditional processing methods are economically impractical or technologically limited. The key advantages of MIM technology when working with stainless steels are the ability to achieve a density of sintered products up to 95 ‒ 98 % of the theoretical, high repeatability of geometric parameters, as well as a significant reduction in mechanical post-processing. Of particular interest is the use of austenitic stainless steel grade 12X18H10T in MIM technology, as its products combine high corrosion resistance and heat resistance, and can also be used when working in aggressive conditions. The composition and technological parameters of granulate production for the MIM process using domestic materials are studied: 12X18H10T grade steel powders, polyformaldehyde binder and technological additives (stearic acid, beeswax and high-pressure polyethylene). The initial stainless steel powder has a regular spherical particle shape ranging in size from 5 to 25 microns. The use of scanning electron microscopy, determination of melt flow characteristics of thermoplastics, as well as the use of the pycnometric method made it possible to study the microstructure, rheological and physical properties of the obtained granules. It has been established that the samples from the developed granulate comply with the requirements of regulatory documents.

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