Water -Soluble Feedstocks in Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing: Formulation, Processing, and Results

This study investigates the development and optimization of water‐soluble feedstocks for Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing (MEAM) and Metal Injection Molding (MIM). Binder systems based on polyethylene glycol (PEG) of varying molecular weights, in combination with backbone polymers such as polyvinyl butyral (PVB) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), were formulated to enhance processability, environmental sustainability, and the mechanical performance of sintered parts. Experimental results demonstrated that optimizing powder characteristics including particle size distribution enabled an increase in the critical powder loading from ۶۰ vol% to ۶۹ vol%, corresponding to a ۱۵% improvement in green density. A two‐step debinding process, consisting of ۱۲ hours of water debinding followed by ۲ hours of thermal treatment, reduced residual binder content to below ۱% and shortened overall debinding time by approximately ۲۰% compared to conventional solvent‐based systems. Subsequent sintering yielded parts with a final density of ۹۷.۵% of the theoretical maximum. These quantitative findings underscore the effectiveness of the optimized water‐soluble binder system in producing high‐quality, dense, and dimensionally accurate components while offering a greener alternative to traditional wax‐based feedstocks.

کلیدواژه ها:

Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing (MEAM) ، Metal Injection Molding (MIM) ، Water -Soluble Binder Systems ، polyethylene glycol (PEG) ، Critical Powder Loading (CPL)