Authors:
Giorgio Valsecchi (1)
1- TAV VACUUM FURNACES SPA, Caravaggio, Italy
Abstract:
Sintered stainless-steel components are widely adopted in the automotive, biomedical, electronics and fashion industries. For complex shaped sintered stainless-steel parts, metal injection molding (MIM) has been the primary production technology for decades but, in past few years, sinter-based additive manufacturing (SBAM) has grown significantly in popularity. Both metal injection molded and additively manufactured stainless-steel parts are often sintered in vacuum furnaces to prevent oxidation, contamination and obtain high densities with bright surfaces. In that case, a partial pressure of inert or reactive gas is commonly adopted to suppress evaporation of volatile alloying elements (i.e. chromium and nickel) and to help remove binder residuals. During sintering, the gaseous atmosphere interacts with the steel influencing its final mechanical and corrosion properties. In this experiment, the effects of sintering on vacuum furnaces with different atmospheres (argon or hydrogen) on 316L parts manufactured through MIM and metal binder jetting SBAM were investigated.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59499/EP246278273
