Powder metallurgy economy,particularity and property
2015-10-15
Economy aspect
Energy saving:The pressure requirement of powder metallurgy is greatly lower than forging,rolling etc. Traditional process;sintering temperature is also lower than main composition melting point.So the cost of energy is much lower than forging,CNC and other process.
Material saving:the material usage of powder metallurgy is up to above 95%,much higher than other process,such as CNC,which material usage is approx between 40%-50%.
Time saving:In automatic production line,the time of forming a blank only needs 0.5 seconds;and the average sintering time of each products also lower to a few seconds.The time cost is much lower than other process.
Precision:The size of powder metallurgy products achieves high accuracy,in general process,no need further machining process.
Particularity
Some material may able to use other process to make,but there is difficulty in practice.For example:
High melting point metal:Tungsten(3380℃),molybdenum(2615℃),ceramic and other high melting point material which are difficult to be made by forging.
Reactive metals:The activation of Titanium,tantalum etc.is very high under molten condition,easily oxidizing or crucible erosion,it causes great difficulty in forging,therefore,most of them are made by powder metallurgy.
Property
Some products with special properties or microscopic structure,can only be made by powder metallurgy,other process will not be able to achieve .For example: Porous material:filter,oil bushing,porous steel etc.
Composite material:dispersion strengthened or fibre reinforced composite material
Alloy system:Most of alloy system has solvus,exceed this solvus,the forging organization will produce eutectic,eutectoid and intermetallic compounds and segregation,forming uneven organization structure;However,some elements are not miscible,even under melting condition,so it is impossible to be made out by forging.The properties of powder metallurgy can easily mix out any proportions and homogeneous organization of alloy material.
