Micro MIM Europe is the European branch of Micro MIM Japan Holdings Inc. which possesses leading technology in the MIM (Metal Injection Moulding) field – an OEM metal component manufacturer. Their technical expertise has resulted in high praises at exhibitions in Europe and America, which they have been attending for over a decade, with overseas inquiries increasing every year.
In the last few years, the company has been achieving an average of +10% in sales revenue with 6,7 M Euro in the last financial year. Micro MIM Europe has R&D and manufacturing sites in Japan and Thailand as well as a marketing and sales site in Germany. The goal is to expand further in the American and European market.
Interview with Yumi Peinemann, Marketing & Account Manager at Micro MIM Europe GmbH.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Yumi Peinemann: We combine over 50 years of injection moulding experience and over 25 years of research and development to develop our proprietary μ-MIM® technology that realises ultra-precise MIM components. It is a technology that includes not only miniaturisation of the component size but also its accuracy and quality assurance.
We also have another outstanding technology, which is called 3D-µMIM®. This is our unique lost-core process that enables the mass production of components with complex geometries with hollow structures and undercuts that are difficult to fabricate using conventional MIM or machining. First, a plastic core called SP mould is produced and placed in the MIM mould; the SP mould is completely decomposed in the process of debinding and sintering and becomes a 100% metal component. Our 3D-μMIM® technology realises even a higher level of design freedom that you have not expected from traditional MIM.
Our customers are mainly large medical device manufacturing companies that require very high precision, and our parts are also used by precision instrument and semiconductor companies.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
Y.P: This is an example of a medical forceps design that we have produced called “Micro Forceps”, with a total length of less than 25 mm.
Medical forceps, which require 3D positional accuracy, are mostly manufactured by CNC machining. However, those methods become no longer financially profitable in the case of mass production of more than tens of thousands pcs/year.
Our micro metal injection moulding technology can manufacture such complicated small metal components with undercut design, free-form surface and so on. Our technology utilises world-leading fine metal power and our original binder for feedstock, which leads to a great positional stability of the forceps. This is realised by having no or minimum secondary machining process. Under our ISO13485-certified quality management system, we guarantee the quality of complex-shaped micro metal components by utilising non-destructive measurement equipment.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
Y.P: The components we manufacture are small metal parts, less than 3 cm in diameter. We have a wide range of materials such as various kinds of stainless steel, titanium, titanium alloy, copper, copper alloy, tungsten alloy, precious metals and soft magnetic materials. We are capable of optimising the feedstock for each part’s stable production, and newly developed alloy powder can also be used for production. We have precisely controlled our production process from feedstock to sintering, plus the final dimensional measurement process under the certified ISO13485 quality assurance system.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active? What can you tell us about market trends?
Y.P: Our μ-MIM® components are mainly used in the medical devices industry, which is a growing industry. The global metal injection moulding (MIM) market was valued at USD 3.96 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 9.80 billion by 2029.
The global medical devices market was valued at USD 577.26 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach around USD 850 billion by 2030.
The trend in the medical device sector is the growing use of surgical robots, integration of AI and machine learning in medical devices and remote patient monitoring devices.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2023?
Y.P: First of all, we are introducing a new metal muffle furnace, which enables us to try new kinds of metal alloy and new metal structures.
Secondly, our original debinding system called “superheated steam debinding system (patented)” is now being introduced, which reduces the debinding process dramatically.
As a group company, Micro MIM Japan Holdings Inc. is expected to surpass the sales revenue of the year 2022.
We are enhancing our focus on growth in the American and European market, serving the medical devices manufacturing sector, such as surgical robots, endoscope devices to name a few.