High Performance Mixes with New Lubricant System
To improve the performance of PM components higher density is one important approach. Lower amount of lubricant is often required to increase the compressibility of a mix. To obtain sufficient lubrication also at lower amount of lubricant, heating of the tool die is an attractive method. Chromium prealloyed powders are used in an increasing number of PM applications. These prealloyed Cr-powders are attractive as they combine high mechanical strength with cost effectiveness. However, due to the solution hardening effect of the prealloying elements, mixes based on prealloyed powders obtain lower compressibility compared to mixes based on pure iron powders. Therefore, Cr alloyed powder can be more demanding to compact and require more efficient lubricants. A new highly efficient lubricant system for demanding applications has been developed. In this paper this new lubricant system is compared to amide wax as lubricant in mixes based on chromium alloyed powders. Data of the performance of the different mixes during compaction is presented including compaction of multi level components under production conditions.