Metal Injection Moulding: A Review of Material Properties and Testing Standards

The Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF) was established to advance the powder metallurgy industry, providing foundational benchmarks for material characterization, including metal injection moulding (MIM). The MIM process involves sprues, runners, and gates, which are considered waste material; therefore, compression moulding is an alternative process to produce metal parts. However, characterization standards, especially for compression moulding, should be selected based on the MIM process framework. Over the decades, the MPIF has published a comprehensive suite of standards specifically concerning terminology, testing methods, and material specifications required to ensure quality control in MIM production. However, due to the coexistence of various standards, selecting the most appropriate protocol poses a significant challenge for researchers and manufacturers alike, as careful and precise selection requires thorough investigation. Therefore, this paper aims to review the appropriate standards for material characterization, focusing primarily on tensile testing. Given the multiple standard systems currently available in the metallurgical field, this review narrows its focus to three predominant standard frameworks for detailed comparative discussion: MPIF, ASTM, and ISO. Literature analysis indicates that evaluation of MIM components relies heavily on three primary material properties, namely mechanical, physical, and rheological properties. For the assessment of mechanical performance, specifically regarding tensile testing, the standard methodologies predominantly utilized are MPIF Standard 50, ISO 2740, and ASTM E8/E8M. Consequently, ASTM E8/E8M was selected as the tensile testing standard to be implemented for compression moulding due to its requirement for flat parallel surfaces on the specimen, which is consistent with compression moulded parts.

Metal injection moulding; compression moulding; material characterization; tensile testing standards; standard selection

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