Metal foam has emerged as a new class material that can be used in structural and functional applications. Because of its excellent mechanical and physical properties, it has been extensively used in aerospace, automotive and medical industries. There are several ways to produce the metal foams. In this study, a net shape foaming technology namely Metal injection moulding-Powder space holder method (MIM-PSH) was used to produce the porous metal. A novel space holder, glycine was mixed with the water atomized stainless powder, palm stearin and polyethylene binder. Rheological behaviours of the feedstocks were fully investigated. The volume fraction of glycine was varied for 50% and 70%, to study its effect on the rheological properties. The results showed that all feedstocks exhibit shear thinning behaviour. As the volume fraction of space holder increased, the viscosities of feedstocks are increased. The activation energy, E is proportional to the amount of space holder used. All feedstocks are found to be suitable for MIM-PSH to produce the porous stainless steel.
