The effects of residual impurities on solid state sintering of the powder injection molded (PIMed) W-15wt%Cu nanocomposite powder were investigated. The W-Cu nanocomposite powder was produced by the mech-ano-chemical process consisting of high energy ball-milling and hydrogen reduction of W blue powder-cuO mixture. Solid state sintering of the powder compacts was conducted at for 2~10 h in hydrogen atmosphere. The den-sification of PIM specimen was slightly larger than that of PM(conventional PM specimen), being due to fast coalescence of aggregate in the PIM. The only difference between PIM and PM specimens was the amount of residual impurities. The carbon as a strong reduction agent effectively reduced residual W oxide in the PIM specimen. The formed by reduction of oxide disintegrated W-Cu aggregates during removal process, on the contrary to this, micropore volume rapidly decreased due to coalescence of the disintegrated W-Cu aggregates during evolution of CO.It can be concluded that the higher densification was due to the earlier occurred Cu phase spreading that was induced by effective removal of residual oxides by carbon.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the influence of thermal debinding and sintering conditions on the sintering behavior and mechanical properties of PIMed 316L stainless steel. The water atomized powders were mixed with multi-component wax-base binder system, injection molded into flat tensile specimens. Binder was removed by solvent immersion method followed by thermal debinding, which was carried out in air and hydrogen atmospheres. Sintering was done in hydrogen for 1 hour at temperatures ranging from 1000℃ to 1350℃ The weight loss, residual carbon and oxygen contents were monitored at each stage of debinding and sintering processes. Tensile properties of the sintered specimen varied depending on the densification and the characteristics of the grain boundaries, which includes the pore morphology and residual oxides at the boundaries. The sinter density, tensile strength (UTS), and elongation to fracture of the optimized specimen were 95%, 540 MPa, and 53%, respectively.