Powder Metallurgy Process Overview

Powder Metallurgy Techniques
The Powder Metallurgy techniques can be pre dominantly divided into two processes.

Conventional Methods - Press and sinter processing
This process comprises the following steps:

• Metal powders blended and fed into a die.
• Compacted into the desired shape.
• Ejected from the die,
• Sintered (solid-state diffused)- This takes place at a temperature below the melting point of the base material in a temperature controlled furnace.
• The Sintering process creates metallurgical bonds between the powder particles, adding the requisite mechanical and physical properties to it.
  

Advantages of Press and sinter processing

• Low manufacturing costs Close Tolerances in the finished products.
• Elimination of the need of Secondary machining operations.
• Availability of wide variety of materials

• Presence of residual porosity lowers some of the physical and mechanical properties
• Tooling and the press tonnage capacity dictates the size and shape on parts to be fabricated.

Note: The above refers to TheMetalCasting.com