Properties of Thermosetting Urethane Acrylate Binder for Metal Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing

Metal binder jet additive manufacturing has attracted industrial attention due to its low production costs. However, the green part strength is low and easily damaged by handling and depowdering. In addition, there are many issues in terms of the binder, such as the residual carbon from the binder in the debinder process, which inhibits powder sintering and has adverse effects on the properties of dissolved carbon in the sintering part. In this study, we investigated the binder that is cured by a thermal polymerization reaction using a thermosetting low molecular weight prepolymer. It can increase the amount of bonding components in the binder, and the green part strength is improved by thermal polymerization of the prepolymer to be high molecular weight. In addition, we designed the binder with less carbon residue by controlling the thermal curing and depolymerization temperature.