In-situ atmosphere monitoring of the debindering of PM steel components with large organic additive volume fractions

The majority of PM manufacturing routes require the use of organic additives during the shaping process. These additives are than removed during a thermal debindering treatment. However, the parameterization of such processes is not trivial, since various thermochemical processes need consideration. In the present work, the gas atmosphere during the heat treatment of PM steel components has been monitored by an in-situ FTIR measurement directly in the furnace. Therefore, highly porous components with large quantities of organic additives have been studied. Under 100 % H2-atmospheres, the carbon residuals of such parts benefit from a pronounced methane formation at ~600 °C. In typical industrial N2-H2 atmospheres, these effects nearly can be neglected. As a conclusion, it is shown, that the proper design of the debindering regime is essential for the manufacturing of high quality components.