Injection Molding for Advanced materials | CoorsTek Technical Ceramics
Ceramic injection molding is preferred for complex, three-dimensional shapes with high volume production needs. In some instances, injection molding is used for lower volume production scenarios where injection molding is best for some geometries, and where no other commercially available forming can produce the required geometry in a production environment.
Ceramic injection molding is mostly the same as plastic injection molding. We are essentially molding a plastic that is highly filled with ceramic powder, then removing the plastic carrier after molding.
The same types of molding machines used for plastics are also used for technical ceramics. But because the ceramic powder is highly abrasive, injection molding machines are modified to replace wear components with extremely hard materials to resist abrasion and improve wear life.
The molding process starts with the plastic-ceramic mixture entering the feed screw chamber. The feed screw forces the material through the feed tube into the mold cavity. Once the shape is molded, the die separates to release the component.
In plastic molding, the part would be done at this point and the molding process complete. However, for ceramic injection molding, a de-binding operation is required before sintering to get the injected component back to its green state without plastic. Removing the plastic opens the component’s porosity for applications that require this property, such as filtration.
Related Information
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