Wet powder pouring (WPP) was developed as an alternative near net shap
e process to metal injection moulding (MIM). The amount of binder, whi
ch is necessary to obtain a sufficient green strength, is relatively l
ow (2-5 vol.-%) compared to the amount used in the MIM process (about
30 vol.-%). This is advantageous with respect to short debinding times
and low residual carbon and oxygen contaminations. A further reductio
n of the binder content or the application of the WPP process to new m
aterials would be promoted by an understanding of the dependence of gr
een strength on particle characteristics and binder content. In the pr
esent investigation the green strengths of stainless steel WPP parts w
ere determined for different particle size distributions and different
binder contents (2-8 vol.-%). The green strength was in the range 3 t
o 7 MN m-2 and the fracture mode was always brittle. A simple fracture
mechanical model was developed, which was able to explain the observe
d relations between binder content, particle size, and green strength.