Research Progress on Powder Injection Molding in Malaysia-A Review

Abstract

In this era, parts complexity, dimensional accuracy, and cost-effectiveness are one of thebasic requirements of the modern industry. Most of the conventional manufacturingtechniques have failed to fulfill the industry’s needs. Powder injection molding (PIM) startedin the early 70s, which is a combination of powder metallurgy and plastic injection moldingthat fulfills the gaps in conventional manufacturing techniques. In Malaysia, PIM wasintroduced by SIRIM Sdn Bhd Malaysia in late 2000. The latter few universities startedworking on PIM. Among all universities, the Advanced Functional Materials Research(AFM) group at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) started to work in 2008 under thedirection of Prof. F. Ahmad and was decided to target various industries and their latestrequirements. The work completed during the past 11 years has been published in varioushigh-quality international journals, secure intellectual property (IP), i.e., trademarks, patents,a pre-commercialization grant from the government, one commercialization agreement, andsigned a technology licensing agreement. They also worked on carbon Nanotube reinforcedcopper nanocomposite for thermal management and secured two patents. This project wascommercialized for heat sink materials for LED Lights. The group is also working oncontrolling the orientation of fibers in the metal matrix to enhance thermal conductivity.Moreover, grafting graphene on metal oxide for its potential use as a radiation shieldingmaterial is one of the noble works. Currently, the group is working on the fabrication of softmagnetic material with enhanced permeability for potential use in hearing Aids, electricmotors, and several other applications. Besides, bio-medical parts like a dental screw, biomedical material of 316L SS reinforced by nano Titanium and additive manufacturing byusing ultra-fused BASF 316L SS parts made through FDM represent the scope of works inPIM.