Application of Titanium Alloy Injection Molding Feed in Aerospace

In the late 1970s, after the early success of MIM, in the aerospace field, in the late 1970s, after the early success of MIM, in the aerospace field, MIM was applied. Here are some examples: seat belt parts, locking devices and accessories, fuel injection nozzles and blade adjusting rods.

In addition, in recent years, people have begun to apply the high-temperature alloy parts manufactured by MIM process to aeroengines. The main MIM materials used in the aviation industry include stainless steel (316L, 410, 420/17-4PH, 13-8PH), superalloys (Hastelloy X, Inconel 713, Inconel 718, Nimonic-90 and Udimet 700), and titanium alloys TIAL and Ti-6AL-4V.

(1) Seat belt parts

The mass of high-strength MIM seat belt parts used in the aerospace field is 90g. This part with complex shape is made of Fe-7Ni-0.6C alloy steel. After heat treatment, the tensile strength is greater than 200Mpa.

Generally, parts of this size (80mm in diameter) and mass are beyond the scope of MIM parts. However, due to the complex shape of parts, only the MIM process is the most economical manufacturing method.

(2) Pressure seat of oil outlet valve

The small MIM part used in A380 Airbus is the oil outlet valve compression seat. These parts used to be made of stamping metal parts, cutting pillars, washers, nuts and other parts. Now they have been replaced by two MIM parts: MIM-316L stainless steel parts to fix the anti ice valve, and a MIM part with a notch at the top of a pillar to fix the plastic switch in place.

This saves a lot of production costs, and not only reduces the cost of parts, but also saves assembly time and production costs for preparing various parts.