A Review of Metal Injection Molding-Process, Optimization, Defects and Microwave Sintering on WC-Co Cemented Carbide

This article is about a review of optimization of metal injection molding and microwave sintering process on tungsten cemented carbide produce by metal injection molding process. In this study, the process parameters for the metal injection molding were optimized using Taguchi method. Taguchi methods have been used widely in engineering analysis to optimize the performance characteristics through the setting of design parameters. Microwave sintering is a process generally being used in powder metallurgy over the conventional method. It has typical characteristics such as accelerated heating rate, shortened processing cycle, high energy efficiency, fine and homogeneous microstructure, and enhanced mechanical performance, which is beneficial to prepare nanostructured cemented carbides in metal injection molding. Besides that, with an advanced and promising technology, metal injection molding has proven that can produce cemented carbides. Cemented tungsten carbide hard metal has been used widely in various applications due to its desirable combination of mechanical, physical, and chemical properties. Moreover, areas of study include common defects in metal injection molding and application of microwave sintering itself has been discussed in this paper.