OptiMIM's strength lies in its ability to deliver precision MIM solutions that meet the diverse needs of both industrial and consumer product industries, delivering high-quality parts with exceptional performance and reliability. 

<p>OptiMIM's strength lies in its ability to deliver precision MIM solutions that meet the diverse needs of both commercial and industrial parts industries, delivering high-quality parts with exceptional performance and reliability.</p>

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Commercial & Industrial Parts

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MIM produces industrial and consumer product components with minimal machining requirements, reducing manufacturing time, costs, and waste.

Near-Net-Shape

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MIM can be used with a wide range of metal powders, allowing for the production of parts with various properties, such as strength, corrosion resistance, and magnetic permeability.

Material Versatility

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MIM provides excellent consistency and repeatability, ensuring that parts are produced to precise specifications

Consistency and Repeatability

MIM allows for complex designs with intricate features, undercuts, and thin sections that would be difficult or impossible to produce using other manufacturing methods.

Design Flexibility

Commercial & Industrial Parts Leaders Choose OptiMIM To Help Achieve Key Goals

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<h1>Leveraging MIM for Performance</h1><p>In production, high costs often stem from secondary operations and manual assembly. Each additional step increases expenses and the potential for inconsistencies.</p><p>Metal injection molding (MIM) nearly eliminates the need for these extra steps.</p><p>MIM technology delivers consistently high-quality, complex metal components at scale. It optimizes part performance and reduces secondary operations. With best-in-class controls, value-engineered part consolidation, and strength and density across a wide range of alloys, MIM offers a way to optimize precision components and produce them in virtually any volume. Expert design for manufacturing knowledge is applied to each project.</p><p><strong>Webinar Topics:</strong></p><ul><li>MIM technology innovations and processes</li><li>MIM design for manufacturing engineering</li><li>Part consolidation</li><li>MIM performance benefits</li></ul><h2>Fill out the form to access the recording.</h2>

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Find out how design flexibility, material diversity, and production repeatability make MIM ideal for industries requiring performance-critical components.

Leveraging MIM for Performance | OptiMIM Webinar

Metal injection molding (MIM) eliminates secondary operations and manual assembly to deliver high-quality, complex metal components at scale with optimized performance. 

Leveraging MIM for Performance

<h1>Investment Casting vs. Metal Injection Molding: A process comparison</h1><p>Both investment casting and metal injection molding produce strong, precise metal components, but key differences can make one process better suited for specific applications.</p><p>Metal injection molding (MIM) creates extremely dense, net-shape parts, offering scalability and cost-effectiveness compared to traditional machining. Investment casting provides unmatched alloy selection and enables complex part geometries at various production volumes.</p><p><strong>Join this webinar to learn more about:</strong></p><ul><li>Material options for each process</li><li>Achievable tolerances</li><li>Medical/dental case studies</li><li>Aerospace/defense applications</li><li>Production volumes</li><li>Surface finishes</li></ul><p><em>** For best experience, please register and attend the webinar on one of our supported browsers: Google Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. **</em></p><h2>Fill out the form to sign up for this free webinar!</h2>

Compare investment casting and MIM for complex metal parts, highlighting differences in tolerances, costs, materials, and production scalability.

Investment Casting vs. Metal Injection Molding

This webinar compares and contrasts investment casting and metal injection molding, examining material options, tolerances, and applications in the medical/dental and aerospace/defense industries, with case studies and a discussion of volumes and surface finishes. 

Investment Casting vs. Metal Injection Molding: A process comparison

<h1>MIM Series Part 4: Molding</h1><p>Molding, the fourth part of this blog series on MIM, focuses on loading compounding pellets into a MIM machine to produce a “green part”. This part is about 20% larger than the final part, but has the same geometry.  The percentage is based on the type of metal used, which is known before mold completion. This allows for the tool to be created correctly, so the final part meets exact specifications.</p><p>For more information about the MIM process,&nbsp;contact OptiMIM engineers today!</p><p>When pelletized feedstock is fed into either standard or multi-slide MIM machines, it is heated and injected into a mold cavity. This high-pressure injection creates the “green” part. The part cools quickly and is ejected from the mold. Only the binders melt in the molding phase, and tooling can have multiple cavities for higher production rates. 70% of MIM defects result from tooling and another 15% from molding, making these steps critical to a correct, defect-free final part.</p><h3>Molding Machines (H3)</h3><p>The metal powder is mixed with plastic and paraffin binders at a ratio of approximately 40% binder and 60% metal. This percentage can vary based on the powder size and desired tool shrinkage. MIM parts can shrink from their original molded condition (known as the green state) to a finished sintering condition by 16-21%. This ratio is known as powder loading. There are two common methods for mixing MIM materials: using a planetary mixer or a tubular mixer. These mixers blend the material, which can be done at room temperature or heated. When heated, the material is mixed to a temperature that causes the binders to melt. Mixing continues until the metal powder is uniformly coated with the binders. The mass is then cooled and pelletized. Both mixing processes are batch processes, ensuring the metal powder is uniformly coated with the binders. The resulting pelletized mix, known as feedstock, is then ready for the molding machine.</p><p>The planetary mixer uses a batch process and is slower. It produces inconsistent blends and introduces more variables than other available mixers. The tubular mixer, which is also a batch process, is the preferred method used by OptiMIM. It offers faster throughput and creates consistent blends with fewer variables.</p><h3>Compounding</h3><p>OptiMIM utilizes conventional MIM machines that have a typical cycle time of about two shots per minute. It is ideal for larger parts and for parts that have multi-cavities and are also high-volume production. Conventional MIM machines require complex tooling, long runner systems, and long material residence time in the machine and mold. Some of the tools for conventional MIM machines could have shorter lives depending on the complexity of the part.</p><p>In part five of this series, you’ll learn how the part goes from “green” to “brown”. The next blog will focus on the debinding portion of the MIM process. </p>

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See how precise injection molding of fine powders shapes complex geometries with tight tolerances before MIM parts are sintered.

MIM Series Part 4: Molding | OptiMIM Article

The fourth part of the MIM series focuses on the molding process, where metal powder and binder are injected into a mold to create a "green part" that is slightly larger than the final product. 

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