Sputtering is the Preferred Vacuum Deposition Technique

Sputtering is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) method of depositing the evaporated target material onto the surface of the substrate forming a thin film layer.
Sputtering is the preferred vacuum deposition technique used by manufacturers of semiconductors, CDs, disk drives, and optical devices. It is used extensively in the semiconductor industry to deposit thin films of various materials in integrated circuit processing. Thin anti-reflection coatings on glass for optical applications are also deposited by sputtering. Sputtered films exhibit excellent uniformity, density, purity and adhesion.
Several types of sputtering processes exist, including: ion beam, diode, and magnetron sputtering.

In the sputtering process substrates are placed into the vacuum chamber, and are pumped down to their process pressure. Sputtering starts when a negative charge is applied to the target material (material to be deposited), causing a plasma or glow discharge. Positive charged gas ions generated in the plasma region are attracted to the negative biased target plate at a very high speed. This collision creates a momentum transfer and ejects atomic size particles from the target. These particles traverse the chamber and are deposited as a thin film onto the surface of the substrates.

The tungsten, molybdenum, titanium targets offered by Stanford Advanced Materials have the advantages of high density, high purity, high precision, homogeneous structure etc.
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Tungsten Heavy Alloy Can be Used to Balance Weights

With the density as high as 16.8~18.8g/cm3, tungsten heavy alloy has been widely used as balancing weights:

• Balancing weights in racing cars, submarines, and airplanes.
• Crankshaft balances
• Oil drilling counterweight stem
• Mobile phones, game machines oscillator
• Gyroscope in aerospace
• Fishing and golf counterweight


• The conventional processing route for tungsten heavy alloys includes mixing the desired amount of elemental powders, followed by cold pressing and liquid phase sintering to almost full density. The matrix alloy melts and takes some tungsten into solution during liquid phase processing, resulting in a microstructure through which large tungsten grains (20–60µm) are dispersed in the matrix alloy. The as-sintered material often is subjected to thermo mechanical processing by swaging and aging, which results in increased strength and hardness in the heavy alloys.

• The majority of current uses for WHAs (tungsten heavy alloys) are best satisfied with the W-Ni-Fe system. Alloys such as 93W-4.9Ni-2.lFe and 95W-4Ni-lFe represent common compositions. The addition of cobalt to a W-Ni-Fe alloy is a common approach for slight enhancement of both strength and ductility. The presence of cobalt within the alloy provides solid-solution strengthening of the binder and slightly enhanced tungsten-matrix interfacial strength. Cobalt additions of 5 to 15% of the nominal binder weight fraction arc most common.
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What is Metal Injection Molding

Metal injection molding is a new type of powder metallurgy near-net forming technology that has been extended from the plastic injection molding industry.
In order to improve its performance, metal or ceramic powder can be added to the plastic to obtain products with high strength and good wear resistance. In recent years, this idea has evolved to maximize the content of solid particles and to completely remove the binder during the subsequent sintering process and densify the forming blank. This new powder metallurgy forming method is called metal injection molding.

First, the metal powder and the binder are selected according to the MIM requirements, and then the powder and the binder are mixed into a uniform feed at a certain temperature by a suitable method. After granulation, the molded product is subjected to degreasing After sintering the densification into the final product.
MIM products due to the complex shape, sintering shrinkage, most of the sintering is still completed after the sintering treatment, including shaping, heat treatment (carburizing, nitriding, carbon nitriding, etc.), surface treatment (grinding, Chemical plating, shot peening, etc.).
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What 3D Printing Powder is Used for

Using 3D printing techniques, it is possible to create view molds in hours or days because of the rapid prototyping characteristics of 3D printing, car manufacturers can apply to the development of automotive shape plans.
Compared to the traditional handmade sludge mold, 3D printing can more accurately convert the 3D plan into something, and the time is shorter, improve the level of production efficiency of the car plan.

At present, many manufacturers have been in the planning aspects of the beginning of the application of 3D printing skills, such as BMW, running the middle of the plan. Car manufacturers can use 3D printing techniques to automate small batches of custom components and production, and are able to create and create complex shapes such as inorganic form factor, hollow and negative tension.
3D printing can quickly make the appearance of complex parts, when the test results, change the 3D file from the new print can be tested again.
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