Micro powder injection molding has been accepted as a potential forming technology for large-scale production of miniature components in industries. However, mold filling capability is often poor due to the blind hole structure of the die cavity, which restricts the widespread application of this technique. In this paper, ZrO2 micro gears with addendum circle ranging from 900μm to 200μm were studied. Instead of using traditional PW-HDPE-SA binder as in powder injection molding, thermoplastic binder system is optimized here for better replication of micro gear. It is found that the dimensional accuracy and demold after injection molding can be improved by utilizing proper binder system. ZrO2 feedstock with a powder loading of 46vol.% and the binder system consisting of BW, HDPE and SA was successfully injection molded and demolded, which indicates good mold filling capability and sufficient demolding strength. The binder system was successfully removed by debinding process in two steps, solvent debinding followed by thermal debinding. Debound components free of defects were obtained. Keywords: Micro powder injection molding, ZrO2 feedstock, Binder system, Molding filling capability, Demolding strength
