Metal Powder Solutions to Pomote Future Growth of the PM industry
The driving force for using PM compared to other manufacturing techniques is almost always due to its ability to produce structural components with close dimensional tolerances and the required performance in a cost-effective way. To further grow the PM market into new high challenging automotive applications, cost-effective PM material solutions combining higher precision with increased performance will be required. This can be achieved by different means.
The development of new cost-effective alloy systems, new compaction techniques enabling higher densities, sintering at higher temperatures in combination with increased cooling rates, carbon control and adoption of secondary heat treatments, are all examples of ways that either on
their own or in combination can be used to increase material performance. The growing awareness of sustainability also makes it important to select both material and manufacturing processes with the least impact on the environment.
In this paper some key aspects of the selection of suitable metal powder solutions and the processing conditions needed to meet performance requirements. These include costeffectiveness and sustainability for automotive applications like synchronizing hubs, cam lobes, sprockets, gears and other demanding applications that will be presented.