Journal of University of Science and Technology Beijing

Volume 15, Number 4, August 2008, Page 480 Materials

Fabrication of micro gear wheels by micropowder injection molding

Haiqing Yin, Xuanhui Qu, and Chengchang Jia

School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
(Received 2007-09-15)

Abstract: The micropowder injection molding technology was investigated to fabricate the microsized gear wheels on a conven-
tional injection molding machine. The feedstock comprised of carbonyl ferrum powder and a wax-based thermoplastic binder. Mi-
croinjection molding was fulfilled at about 423 K under 100 MPa. The heating system was applied to the die to improve the fluidity
of the feedstock and subsequently the cooling system was used to enhance the strength of the green compacts after injection by de-
creasing the temperature of the die. The gear wheels were realized successfully with their addendum circle diameter ranging from
800 to 200 Pm and with the center hole as small as 60 Pm.
© 2008 University of Science and Technology Beijing. All rights reserved.

Key words: micropowder injection molding; gear wheel; thermoplastic binder; heating system

[This study was financially supported by the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (No.2004CB719802), the
National High-Tech Research and Development Program of China (No.2006aa03Z113), and the Program of the Ministry of Educa-
tion of China for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in Universities (No.I2P407).]

1. Introduction Microparts with complex shape and small size, such

Recent years have witnessed the rapid development
of microsystem technology (MST), which asks for the
microcomponents, for example, micromolds, mi-
croparts for sensors, and accelerators, to be fabricated
with high tolerance and accuracy. Some technologies
show their advantage of producing microsized parts in
some respects, such as lithographic process (LIGA),
micro cutting, laser ablation, and silicon etching.
However, the application of these technologies is re-
stricted because of the limited types of materials, high
cost, and low efficiency. Micropowder injection
molding (P-PIM), a novel process to fabricate the mi-
crosized parts with a complex shape, therefore,
emerges as an alternative to carry out the fabrication
of the microcomponents, in medium and large scale, at
a low cost [1-10]. Two research institutes in Germany
have become the first to explore the relative research
and have obtained the financial support from the gov-
ernment and large enterprises. A variety of materials
were involved in their research, including stainless
steel 316L and 17-4PH, ceramics such as ZrO2, Al2O3,
Si3N4, TiO2, and Al3N4, and cermets such as WC-Co.
Corresponding author: Haiqing Yin, E-mail: hqyin@mater.ustb.edu.cn
© 2008 University of Science and Technology Beijing. All rights reserved.
as gear wheels and spin nozzles, were obtained suc-
cessfully [1].
In this article, the microinjection molding process is
studied to manufacture micro gear wheels with an ad-
dendum circle diameter less than 1 mm. The raw ma-
terial used is pure Fe.
2. Experimental
Carbonyl Fe powder was used in this experiment.
Fig. 1 shows the morphology of the powder. Most of
the powders are in round shape with a mean size of
2.3 Pm. The feature of the round shape combined with
the small size of the powders meets the requirements
of injection molding of small parts because of the im-
proved fluidity and capabilities of mold filling.
The binder in this case was a wax-based thermo-
plastic binder and its components contained paraffin
wax (PW), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and
stearic acid (SA), as listed in Table 1. Low molecular
weight components and high molecular weight ones
were selected to form the binder of the thermoplastic
Also available online at www.sciencedirect.com
H.Q. Yin et al., Fabrication of micro gear wheels by micropowder injection molding 481

polymer. The low molecular weight components com-
prised of paraffin wax and stearic acid. Paraffin wax is
usually used as the primary component to meet the
requirement of the flow characteristics and viscosity.
The addition of a small amount of stearic acid was to
improve the surface features of the powder and de-
crease the viscosity of the mixture. High-density poly-
ethylene was chosen as the high molecular weight
component to offer enough strength for the green
compacts during the debinding process. 
Fe powder was then mixed with the binders to ob-
tain a homogenous PIM feedstock in a torque rheom-
eter plastograph mixer at 80 r/min for 90 min at 135qC.
The powder loading was 56vol%.
Fig. 1. Morphology of the carbonyl Fe powder.
Although the micromold inserts of the gear wheels
were manufactured by an advanced silicon etching
process (ASE process) on a silicon slice, the ASE pro-
cess, combined the inductively coupled plasma etch-
ing process, with a sidewall passivation process, was
applicable to produce the mold insert of a high
height/width ratio. The morphology and the array of
the mold inserts for gear wheels, with a diameter of
the addendum circle ranging from 900 to 200 Pm and
the depth of 200 Pm, are shown in Fig. 2(a), on one
piece of silicon slice. The center hole of the mold in-
sert with a diameter of the addendum circle of 900 Pm
was 160 Pm. The size of the center holes decreases by
20 Pm with decreasing the addendum circle diameter.
Fig. 2(b) illustrates a mold insert on the silicon pro-
duced by the ASE process, keeping the accurate shape
of the gear wheel. The mold insert with a diameter of
the addendum circle of 200 Pm, as shown in Fig. 2(c),
witnesses the limitation of the ASE process with un-
even wall and inaccurate shape. In this case, the heat-
ing and cooling systems are equipped around the in-
jection molding die. The microinjection process was
carried out on the conventional injection molding
machine of IN STAR CJ80E produced by Chende
Plastics Machinery Co. Ltd., China

Table 1. Components and their viscous properties of the thermoplastic binder

Components Content / wt% K0 / (Pa˜s1) E / (kJ˜mol1) Tk / K
Paraffin wax (PW) 63 0.009 4.4 332
Stearic acid (SA) 10 0.007  347
High density polyethylene (HDPE) 27 420 33.0 423
Note: K0 viscosity at a reference temperature T0; E activation energy for viscous flow; Tk melting point of the components.

Fig. 2. Mold inserts of the micro gear wheels on the silicon slice by the ASE process: (a) close-up view of the mold insert
with different sizes; (b) mold insert with a diameter of the addendum circle of 800 Pm; (c) mold insert with a diameter of the
addendum circle of 200 Pm.

3. Results and discussion
Thermoplastic binders were successfully applied in
many cases to increase the mold filling capacity of
various kinds of powders [1, 3-4, 6, 8]. The viscosity
of a thermoplastic binder (K), whose behavior is ther-
mally activated, decreases with temperature and de-
pends exponentially on absolute temperature T as fol-
lows [11-12]:
K=K0exp[(E/k)(1/T1/T0)] (1)
where k is the Boltzmann’s constant. In this experi-
ment the binder is the mixture of wax, polymer, and
stearic acid. Therefore the viscosity of the binder
mixture can be calculated by the logarithmic additivity
rule [3]:
482 J. Univ. Sci. Technol. Beijing, Vol.15, No.4, Aug 2008

ln(Kb)= ¦ Wi ln K i  (2) K under a pressure of 100 MPa. In view of the diffi-

where Ki is the component viscosity available by Eq.
(1), Wi the mass fraction component i, and n the num-
ber of the components. In this case, the viscosity of
the binder mixture at the injection temperature of 423
K, calculated by Eqs. (1) and (2), is 7.83 Pa˜s. This
value is smaller than 10 Pa˜s, which is the upper limit
of the viscosity of the pseudoplastic flow for the
binder mixture. From this point, therefore, the
wax-base thermoplastic binder in this experiment
meets the theoretical requirement as a binder of PIM.
The injection molding process was fulfilled at 423
culty in molding resulting from the small size of the
mold insert, the heating system was applied to the die
to enhance the rheological characteristics and decrease
the viscosity of the feedstock during this process. The
temperature of the die was adjusted to 353 K. Because
of the poor thermal conductivity of silicon and the
accumulated heat from the melted feedstock as well as
the heating system, the cooling system was subse-
quently applied around the silicon slice to decrease the
temperature of the green compacts immediately after
mold filling. Fig. 3 shows the top view of the green
compacts of different sizes with a height of 200 Pm.

Fig. 3. Top view of the green compacts of different addendum circle sizes molded at 423 K under the pressure of 100 MPa.
Diameters of the addendum circle and the corresponding center hole are: (a) 800 and 140 Pm; (b) 700 and 120 Pm; (c) 600
and 100 Pm; (d) 500 and 80 Pm; (e) 400 and 60 Pm; (f) 200 and 20 Pm, respectively.

The forming of the gear wheels, shown in Fig. 3,
proves that it is feasible to keep the shape of the gears
intact and accurate when the diameter of the adden-
dum circle is as small as 400 Pm. Also a conclusion
can be drawn that the binder meets the basic require-
ment of micropowder injection on its viscosity and
strength. However, serious damage occurs on the frin-
ge of the gear with the circle diameter of 200 Pm to
such an extent that the profile of the gear becomes
fuzzy, which attributes to the poor strength of the
green compacts and the coarse surface of the insert
wall. The strength of the green compacts can be im-
proved effectively by appropriate design of the cool-
ing system on the mold and decreasing the tempera-
H.Q. Yin et al., Fabrication of micro gear wheels by micropowder injection molding
ture of the compacts before demolding. The improved
sample, by decreasing the temperature of the heated
mold and prolonging the holding time after injection,
is shown in Fig. 4. The fringe of the gear, however,
still does not conform entirely to the designed pattern.
Accordingly, the roughness and accuracy of the mold
insert surface become one of the key factors to influ-
ence the final quality of the microparts. Only after the
roughness of the inner wall of the mold insert is im-
proved, can the completeness and accuracy of the
green compacts be guaranteed.
Fig. 4. Deformation occurred on the center hole of the
gear with a diameter of the addendum circle of 200 Pm.
Another important feature shown in Fig. 3 is the
center hole of the gears. Compared with the shape of
the tine, the center holes are easier to be realized de-
spite the diameter of the center hole being less than
one fifth of that of the addendum circle. Even when
the diameter is as small as 60 Pm, as shown in Fig.
3(e), the center hole still maintains its cylindrical
shape very well. With the diameter of the center hole
decreasing further, however, deformation, shown in
Fig. 4, occurs at the center hole, because high rough-
ness of the die surface leads to difficulties in the de-
molding process. In some cases, the fragment released
from the gear may cover the surface of the center hole,
making the center hole invisible, as shown in Fig. 3(f).
4. Conclusions
The micro-sized gearwheels, with the diameter of
addendum circles ranging from 800 to 200 Pm, were
realized successfully by means of micro powder injec-
tion molding with carbonyl iron powder and thermo-
483
plastic binder mixture. The temperature and pressure
of mold filling were optimized as 423 K and 100 MPa,
respectively. The cooling system was testified to be
valid to cool and harden the green compact to improve
the intactness of the compacts in the P-PIM process.
The shape of the gearwheels was kept accurate when
the diameter of addendum circles was greater than 400
Pm. The center hole maintained its cylindrical shape
when the diameter was as small as 60 Pm. The quality
of the mold insert was found a key factor to influence
the final quality of the parts.
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