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Parmaco Metal Injection Molding AG: Swiss precision engineering that pushes the limits of MIM and micro MIM Since the earliest days of Metal Injection Moulding’s commercialisation in Europe, in the early 1990s, Swiss company Parmaco Metal Injection Molding AG has been instrumental in perfecting the process for the most advanced applications. As well as a focus on ‘Swiss precision’, producing MIM parts to the highest dimensional accuracy, the company is also renowned for the production of complex microMIM® components. Dr Georg Schlieper reports on a recent visit to the company for PIM International.
The small town of Fischingen, in eastern Switzerland, is home to one of Europe’s longest established manufacturers of MIM parts. In 1992, Georg Breitenmoser acquired a technology licence from the process pioneer, Parmatech Corporation, based in Petaluma, California, USA, and founded Parmaco Metal Injection Molding AG. The company is still Switzerland’s leading MIM producer and, to this day, Breitenmoser steers the fortune of the company as the sole owner and president of the board of directors, though he handed over management responsibility for daily operations to Kai Hermes, Parmaco’s General Manager, in 2020. For a medium-sized company, employing about sixty people, Parmaco has a relatively large product development department. This consists of eight employees who take care of the introduction of new parts, as well as the automation and optimisation of the production process. Around
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forty employees work in production, quality assurance, and maintenance, while the rest work in sales and administration. The plant has a production area of about 4,000 m 2 (Fig. 1).
Parmaco’s MIM process From the very start, Parmaco has produced its feedstock in-house. The binder technology used has, of course, evolved over the decades,
Fig. 1 Buildings at the Parmaco MIM facility in Fischingen, Switzerland (Courtesy Parmaco)
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Parmaco: Swiss precision MIM
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