Rheologic behavior and PIM processing of WC-TiC-Co powder feedstock

An improved wax-based binder was developed for the powder injection molding (PIM) of WC-TiC-Co cemented carbides.The critical powder loading and the rheologic behavior of the feedstock were determined. It was found that the critical powder loading could achieve up to 62.5% (volume fraction) and the feedstock exhibited a pseudo-plastic flow behavior. The injection molding,debinding and sintering processes were studied. The dimension deviation of the sintered samples could be controlled in the range of ±0.2% with the optimized processing parameters and the mechanical properties were better than or equivalent to those of the same alloy made by conventional press-sintering process.