Production, properties and potential of MIM-components with hollow-sphere additions

Additions of hollow glass or ceramic micro spheres can be used to reduce the density of metal injection moulded components to almost half of the density of the corresponding compact alloy. Feasibility of the technology has been demonstrated for alloys like Fe99.7, FeCu3, FeNi36 or 316L. The metalhollow-sphere composites exhibit high specific stiffness, very good vibration damping, high capability of crash energy absorption and the possibility of adapting the Young's modulus. Like in other MMC's ductility is reduced in comparison to the associated compact alloy. Examples of potential MIM-components containing hollow micro sphere additions are acoustic components, crash elements for high energy loads or weight- and cost-reduced design parts. The presented paper describes the production process for Fe based materials containing different types and sizes of microspheres, provides an overview of mechanical properties and discusses benefits of this versatile class of material in view of the requirements of selected application scenarios.