2001/10/24 Pressing & Sintering

Chromium Alloyed PM Steels - A New Powder Generation

EURO PM2001, in Nice, France. Author: Björn Lindqvist. The dominating part of mass produced PM- steels today are sintered in continuous furnaces operating at maximum 1150°C. The alloying elements Cu,Ni,Mo and C are normally used to obtain good material properties. However, environmental concerns and cost might restrict the use of especially Cu and Ni, as additives to PM-steels, in the future. Since many years, Cr-alloyed PM-steels are available as complement to the existing Cu/Ni-alloyed materials. This family of materials has many advantages and the most important are cost, the ability to be recycled and hardenability. However, still PM part production of Cr-steels is mainly limited to top performance applications sintered at high temperature. In the present paper focus is put on processing Cr-alloyed PM-steels in furnaces operating at maximum 1150°C. It shows necessary precautions to be taken for the successful sintering of PM-steels alloyed with Cr.