Micro powder injection molding: Sintering kinetics of microstructured components

The sintering kinetics of microsize structures (diameter 80 μm) and substructure (in the millimeter range) fabricated by micro powder injection molding were studied. The microsize structures had lower porosity than the substructure, indicating that size reduction increases densification. The densification mechanism varies with size, lattice diffusion (for the microsize structures) and boundary diffusion (for the substructure). The activation energies for the control mechanism during grain growth and densification are reported.