Enabling Coarser MIM Materials By Ferritic Sintering
MIM is a competitive component manufacturing method for 3D small structural parts manufactured by materials with fine powders. The fine powder, <10 µm, ensures excellent surface finish and sintering activity, which gives high strength. PM component manufacturing on the other hand uses coarser powder (<250 µm) and is most often used in more 2D shaped components manufactured by uni-axial compression. The mechanical strength of PM materials is generally lower compared to MIM materials, but also the cost. This paper describes an alternative process route which utilizes a relatively coarse metal powder in the Fe-Mo-P system, particle size median of 30-40 µm, in a MIM process to obtain structural parts of 7.5 g/cm³ sintered density. The potential benefits of this material and process is that larger parts can be manufactured in a cost efficient way also with MIM.
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