2013-06-26 Pressing & Sintering

Effect of Composition and Processing on the Precision of Sinter Hardening Powder Metal (PM) Steels

Sinter hardening is commonly used in the powder metal (PM) industry as a cost effective method to produce components requiring high mechanical performance. Using accelerated cooling in combination with higher alloying contents, sinter hardening steels offer similar performance to conventional heat treated steels with reduced distortion. As demands on component precision increase, understanding the effects of processing and composition on the precision of the sinter harden steels will be required by component manufacturers to select the proper sinter hardening grade and composition for a given set of requirements. In this paper, common sinter hardening alloys are subjected to various processing conditions. The mechanical performance and precision of the different compositions under these processing conditions will be presented.