Quantitative analysis of surface properties resulting from powder-binder separation

Abstract

Separation of particular material components occurring during shear flow of PIM feedstocks has a detrimental effect on the quality of the resulting parts. Currently, there is a lack of reliable methods describing separation in a quantitative way. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy combined with analytical computation provide an approach to analyse this phenomenon quantitatively, and compare tendency to separation as a function of material composition and/or processing parameters. Further, surface quality of the sintered parts is determined quantitatively with a contactless scanner with a First Interface Detection testing mode in order to obtain fractal dimensions of both reject and fine surface structures of the final products.