316L stainless steel is a well-established engineering material and lots of components are fabricated by either ingot metallurgy or powder metallurgy. From the viewpoints of material properties and process versatility, powder metallurgy has been widely applied in industries. Generally, stainless steel powders are prepared by atomization processes and powder characteristics, compaction ability, and sinterability are quite different according to the powder preparation process. In the present study, a nanoparticle dispersed micro-sphere powder is synthesized by pulse wire explosion of 316L stainless steel wire in order to facilitate compaction ability and sintering ability. Nanoparticles which are deposited on the surface of micro-powder are advantageous for a rigid die compaction while spherical micro-powder is not to be compacted. Additionally, double step sintering behavior is observed for the powder in the dilatometry of cylindrical compact body. Earlier shrinkage peak comes from the sintering of nanoparticle and later one results from the micro-powder sintering. Microstructure as well as phase composition of the sintered body is investigated.
The effects of sintering condition and powder size on the microstructure of MIMed parts were investigated using water-atomized 316L stainless steel powder. The 316L stainless steel feedstock was injected into micro mold with micro features of various shapes and dimensions. The green parts were debound and pre-sintered at 800• C in hydrogen atmosphere and then sintered at 1300• C and 1350• C in argon atmosphere of 5torr and 760torr, respectively. The oxide particles were formed and distributed homogeneously inside the sample except for the outermost region regardless of sintering condition and powder size. The width of layer without oxide particles are increased with decrease of sintering atmosphere pressure and powder size. The fine oxides act as the obstacle on grain growth and the high sintering temperature causes severe grain growth in micro features due to larger amount of heat gain than that in macro ones.
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