About Powder Metallurgy Process
Powder metallurgy (PM) is a metal-forming process performed by blending fine powdered materials, pressing them into a desired shape or form (compacting), and heating the compressed material in a controlled atmosphere to bond the material (sintering).
The powder metallurgy process consists of four basic steps:
- Production of Metal Powder
- Mixing and Blending
- Compaction and shaping of the powder
- Sintering of the compact to enhance integrity and strength
Powder metallurgy is a continually and rapidly evolving technology embracing most metallic and alloy materials and various shapes. It is a highly advanced method of manufacturing reliable ferrous and non-ferrous parts. Most powder metallurgy products are used in the transportation industry.
Advantages of Powder Metallurgy
Compared with other manufacturing processes, the PM process has the highest raw material utilization rate and the lowest energy requirement on the finished parts. It is suitable for high-volume production with very little wastage of material. Secondary machining is virtually eliminated. Although the process has existed for more than 100 years, it has become widely recognized as an excellent way of producing high-quality parts for various vital applications over the past quarter-century. This success is due to the advantages the process offers over other metal forming technologies such as forging and metal casting, advantages in material utilization, shape complexity, and near-net-shape dimensional control. These, in turn, contribute to sustainability, making powder metallurgy a recognized green technology.
Cost-effective
The final products can be compacted with the powder metallurgy method, and no need or can shorten the machine’s processing. It can save material significantly and reduce production costs.
Complex shapes
Powder metallurgy allows obtaining complex shapes directly from the compacting tooling, without any machining operation, like teeth, splines, profiles, frontal geometries etc.
High precision
Achievable tolerances in the perpendicular compacting direction are typically IT 8-9 as sintered, improvable up to IT 5-7 after sizing. Additional machining operations can improve precision.
Self-lubrication
The interconnected porosity of the material can be filled with oils, obtaining then a self-lubricating bearing: the oil provides constant lubrication between bearing and shaft, and the system does not need any additional external lubricant.
Green technology
The manufacturing process of sintered components is certified as ecological because the material waste is shallow, the product is recyclable, and the energy efficiency is good because the material is not molten.
Material options
Moxperts offer a wide variety of certified alloys for rapid powder metallurgy manufacturing services.
If the material is not listed, feel free to contact us for a customized solution.
The use of metal powders enables a wide variety of ferrous and non-ferrous alloys to be used and for the material properties (strength, hardness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, etc.) to be close to those of wrought metals.
- 17-4PH
- 316L
- 420
- 440C
- 310
- 1000 Series
- 4000 Series
- 52100
- M2/M4
- T15
- M42
- S7
- F-75 (ASTM F2886)
- MP35N (ASTM F562)
- Ti
- Ti-6AI-4V
- Cu
- W-Cu, Mo-Cu
- Fe-3%Si
- Fe-50%Ni
- Fe-50%Co
- W
- W heavy alloy
- WC-5Co
- WC-10Co
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