Azriszul Mohd Amin

Mixing Homogeneity and Rheological Characterization for Optimal Binder Formulation for Metal Injection Moulding

Mixing homogeneity and the feedstock rheological characteristic for optimal binder formulation in metal injection moulding is evaluated between Polypropylene (PP) and Sewage fat (SF) or Fat Oil Grease (FOG). Difference powder loading of SS316L also being used here to determine the possibility of the best binder formulation selected could be optimised for optimal powder loading base on rheological characteristic analysis. Two binder formulations of PP to SF being selected here are 60/40 and 70/30 accordingly with the powder loading of 60% and 55% for each binder formulation. The analysis will be base on viscosity, shear rate, temperature, activation energy, flow behaviour index and moldability index. It is found that rheological result shows all the two binder formulations with both powder loading exhibit pseudoplastic behaviour or shear thinning where the viscosity decrease with increasing shear rate. Feedstock viscosity also decrease with increasing temperature indication of suitability for moulding. Results from all the analysis conducted shows that the volumetric powder loading of 60% with binder volumetric of 60% for PP and 40% for SF contributes significant stability and suitability for optimum powder loading.

Differential Ceramic Shell Thickness Evaluation for Direct Rapid Investment Casting

Rapid prototyping (RP) process offers a promising economical way as a sacrificial pattern in investment casting (IC) at high speed and low cost for low volume part manufacturing. However direct sacrificial RP pattern have encountered shell cracking during burnout process due to polymer based materials. Shell mould thickness was need to be concerned to have strong enough to withstand RP part expansion for employing direct method. The aim of present research was to compare the efficacy of different shell thickness for aluminum casting part fabricated from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and acrylate based material made from FDM and MJM respectively. The hollow RP pattern has been used directly to produce ceramic moulds. The feasibility of ceramic mould has been assessed in term of burnout ability and crack defect. Dimensional accuracies and surface roughness of the castings part have been observed in this investigation. Result shows thicker mould with proposed stuco procedure resulted without any crack defect for botRP part and no residual ash remained when firing higher than 870°C of temperature.In addition, FDM produced better accuracy for overall mould thickness, but MJM have better surface roughness. Therefore both direct RP pattern were suitable to be used in IC process with proposed shell thickness.

Mixing and Characterisation of Stainless Steel 316L Feedstock for Waste Polystyrene Binder System in Metal Injection Molding (MIM)

This paper describes the mixing process and homogeneity analysis of a newly developed binder system based on waste polystyrene (PS) and palm kernel oil (PKO) to produce feedstock for metal injection molding (MIM). Since mixing is a critical step in MIM process, hence the mixture of powder and binder should be homogeneous and injectable. In this study, water atomised Stainless Steel powder was mixed with a new binder system consisting of waste polystyrene and palm kernel oil in a Brabender Plastograph EC rotary mixer. Several tests were performed to assess the homogeneity of the feedstock that was produced at 60 vol.% powder loadings. The 60 vol.% was chosen because the Critical Powder Volume Concentration (CPVC) of the SS316L powder was found to be 64.8 vol.%. The tests conducted were density, binder burn-out and SEM morphology observation. It was found that the feedstock shows good homogeneity and suitable for further processing in MIM.

The Influence of Sewage Fat Composition on Rheological Behavior of Metal Injection Moulding

Influence of sewage ratio or Fat Oil Grease (FOG) on the feedstock rheological characteristic for optimal binder formulation in metal injection moulding is evaluated besides Polypropylene (PP) as a backbone binder. Powder loading of 62% of water atomised SS316L being used here to determine the possibility of the best binder formulation which could be optimised for optimal powder loading base on rheological characteristic analysis. Two binder formulations of PP to SF being selected here are 60/40, 50/50 and 40/60 accordingly with the powder loading of 62% each binder formulation. The analysis will be base on viscosity, shear rate, temperature, activation energy, flow behaviour index and moldability index. It is found that from rheological result views, binder with composition of 60/40 and 50/50 exhibit pseudoplastic behaviour or shear thinning where the viscosity decrease with increasing shear rate. For 40/60 binder ratio is not suitable since the behaviour of the flow indicates dilatants behaviour. After considering all the criteria in terms of flow behaviour index, activation energy, viscosity and mouldability index, binder with ratio of 60/40 is evolve as a good selections.

Green Strength Optimization in Metal Injection Molding Applicable with a Taguchi Method L9 (3)4

Recently Metal injection molding is selected as a vital process in producing large amount of small part with complex geometry and intricate shape. This process is lead to solve cost effective issue in manufacturing fields. Feedstock composition behavior categorized as one of impact factor in determines the victories in metal injection molding process. Thus this paper is focused on optimizing the strength of green part by applied Taguchi Method L9 (34) as optimization tools during injection process. The composition of feedstock is 55% powder loading (PL) were injected by injection molding machine .Several injection parameter were optimized such as injection temperature (A), barrel temperature (B), injection pressure (C) and Speed (D) The results analyzed by using Signal to Noise Ratio (S/N ratio) terms. The highest green strength is A2, B2, C2, and D2

Hydroxyapatite extracted from waste fish bones and scales via calcination method

A hydroxyapatite is known as one of vital materials and common use in biomedical field and concentrated in clinical area. In relation to the above, the development of hydroxyapatite powder becomes an attractive research lines due to simplify in produce it. Thus in this paper the researcher stress out about Hydroxyapatite powder gained from the natural sources or so called as the waste of Tilapia bone and scales. The raw bones of and scale were undergo to crushing process to form in powder size (0.2 mm) then analysed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) to identified the mineralogy of raw bone. Moreover the powder of fish bone and scales also go through to Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) machine to analyse the microstructure of the powder while EDS act as device to determine the chemical composition of the sample powder. Sample powder then forward calcination process at selected temperature range to as a cheaper method in obtained hydroxyapatite raw sources. The range of calcination temperatures are between 800°C to 1000 °C. The sample preparation were analysed in both condition before and after calcination process by using XRD, SEM and EDS. The HAP crystalline composition of tilapia bones for raw powder and at 800 °C are similar with HAP pattern (JDS 00-009-0432) and the chemical reaction is Ca5(PO4)3(OH) then at temperature 900 and 1000 similar to HAP pattern (JDS 00-055-0592) with chemical reaction equal to Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2.

Optimisation of Processing Condition Using Taguchi Method on Strength of HDPE-Natural Fibres Micro Composite

Injection molding usually uses to produce part from plastic. Other than it is cheap, it also can produce part in large quantity. In this paper, Taguchi Methods was used to define the optimization of process parameter for an injection molding machine to produce a dumbbell product from High-density Polyethylene (HDPE) + natural fiber (Kenaf). Taguchi Methods with L9-34 approaches will be used in this work. Four different formulation of material will be tested to find the best formulation and its parameter setting. Here, an orthogonal array (OA), signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are employed to analyze the effect of injection molding parameter. The significant of formulation and parameter setting from injection molding through the hardness and the strength value of the specimen. Furthermore, test will be conducted through hardness test and tensile test. Changes in the parameter setting will give different hardness and tensile strength value. The optimum parameter setting was set base on the S/N ratio. For each formulation, it has their optimum parameter setting for hardness and for tensile strength. The optimum parameter setting was predicting their S/N ratio using Minitab software.

The effect of alkali treatment under various conditions on physical properties of kenaf fiber

Alkali treatment was known as one commonly used treatment for natural fiber and obtained a good fiber matrix adhesion, thermal and mechanical properties of composite. This paper reports the effect of alkali treatment conditions on the physical properties of kenaf fiber such as density, weight loss, diameter, cross sectional and fiber morphology. In this study, kenaf fiber were treated under various conditions alkali concentration at 2, 6 and 10 (w/v%), immersion duration at 30, 240 and 480 minute and immersion temperature at 27, 60 and 100°C. The effects of alkali treatment on kenaf fiber physical properties under various conditions were explored. Alkali treatment conditions setting have an impact on kenaf bast fiber physical characteristics. In kenaf fiber density, it was found that a small increase of kenaf density value after alkali treatment compared to untreated kenaf fiber. When each of alkali treatment parameters increased, kenaf fiber density also increased slightly. Kenaf fiber weight loss also exhibit a similar pattern of small increment with the increase of treatment parameters. Additionally, kenaf fiber diameter and cross sectional area show a decline pattern after treated with alkali. Furthermore, this decline pattern was corresponding with the increasing level of alkali treatment parameters. The maximum of kenaf diameter reduction was recorded at high level of each alkali treatment parameters.

Solvent debinding variables on leaching Fat, Oil and Grease (FOG) derivatives of green part stainless steel SS316L metal injection moulding

Sewage fat or Fat Oil Grease (FOG) derivatives for binders component in the stainless steel SS316L feedstock being injected and undergo several test debinding variables. The influences of temperature, time and solvents type has been tested with binder formulation of 60:40 between Polypropylene (PP) and FOG derivatives besides the 60% powder loading of stainless steel powder. Experimental results of the quickest and higher percentage of FOG derivatives leach out from green part is being analysed. The green part will undergo two different solvent debinding (Heptane and Hexane) with three different solvent temperature. Debinding times was set for 10 hours and every 1, 3, 6 and 10 hours the green part will undergo weight measurement for monitoring the weight loss percentage of green part. It seems that both solvent indicates good diffusion and dilution for extracting the FOG derivatives out from the green part in producing brown part where no sign of part crack or swelling during and after solvent debinding. Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) for element detection and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis also being perform which indicates the good pores build up. Results found that the best solvent for removing FOG derivatives is hexane with 60oC being the choice of solvent temperature.

Mixing study of aluminium waste as metal powder for waste polystyrene binder system in Metal Injection Molding (MIM)

The mixing process of a newly developed binder system based on waste polystyrene (PS) and palm kernel oil (PKO) to produce feedstock for metal injection molding (MIM) using aluminium waste as metal powder is described. Since mixing is a critical step in MIM process, therefore the mixture of powder and binder should be homogeneous and moldable. In this study, aluminium powder produced from waste aluminium alloy was mixed with a new binder system consisting of waste polystyrene and palm kernel oil in a Brabender Plastograph EC rotary mixer. Several tests were performed to assess the homogeneity of the feedstock that was produced at 60 vol.% powder loadings.The tests conducted were density, binder burn-out and SEM morphology observation. It was found that the feedstock shows good homogeneity and suitable for further processing in MIM.