Metal injection molding for stethoscope chestpiece

Abstract

The invention relates to a stethoscope comprising a stethoscope chestpiece comprising a body member having a bottom surface and an ejector mark disposed on the bottom surface. The stethoscope chestpiece has a weight of at least 50 g, a surface roughness (Ra) no greater than 1.6 microns in an unpolished state, and reflectivity (% R) of at least 60% in an unpolished state. The stethoscope chestpiece can be produced by injection molding, extruding, or pressing a metallic thermoplastic composition into a mould forming a green molded body, debinding a portion of binder material from green molded body forming a brown molded body without reducing the temperature by more than 80° C., and sintering the brown molded body to form the stethoscope chestpiece.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.