Importance

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Abstract

A powder injection molding and infiltration process. A powder of a skeleton material having a relatively high melting point is mixed with a composite binder to form a mold mixture. The composite binder is comprised of at least two binder materials. The mold mixture is molded into a desired shape in a mold device to produce a molded part. The composite binder is then removed to produce voids in the molded part and the voids are filled by infiltrating an infiltrant comprised of an infiltrant material having a relatively low melting point to produce a composite molded part. In a preferred embodiment the skeleton material is TiB.sub.2 and the infiltrant material is aluminum and the composite binder is comprised of a plastic and a wax. In this embodiment the wax portion of the composite binder is removed using a solvent and the plastic is removed during the infiltration step. The resulting composite part has a TiB.sub.2 skeleton with voids substantially filled with aluminum. This process is especially useful for making light and strong parts with complex shapes such as golf club heads, tools, cutting implements, thermal management products, rocket motor components and bicycle parts. In another preferred embodiment, a golf club head is comprised of three parts: an non-sintered TiB.sub.2 part for the body of the head, a sintered TiB.sub.2 part for the striking surface of the head, and a heavy tungsten part to provide weight for the head. In this embodiment, the aluminum infiltrant substantially fills the voids in all three parts to create a golf club head with optimum characteristics.

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First Claim