Performance Characteristics of a Newly Developed Ni-Mo Sinter-hardened PM Steel
Sinterhardening of PM components has been a successful and cost effective alternative to secondary heat treatment by eliminating the Heat Treatment manufacturing step. However, Sinterhardening alloys have been facing increased cost pressure due to the increases and fluctuations in the prices of molybdenum and nickel. Sinter-hardened components can also be susceptible to dimensional inconsistency due to the presence of admixed copper. The purpose of this paper will be to present the properties achievable with a newly developed sinter-hardening grade based on 0.9%Mo/0.9%Ni/0.25%Mn. The sinter-hardened material properties achieved on test pieces and production components will be evaluated. The new material is also manufactured in a version with 2% Cu diffusion alloyed. The dimensional consistency of the diffusion alloyed grade on production based components will be compared to traditional Sinter-hardened grades such as FLC-4608HT.