ADVANTAGES OF THE SINTERHARDENING PROCESS

Presented at the Fourth Latin-American Conference on Powder Technology – PTECH 2003

By Fernando C. S. Araújo Jr – Brassinter S/A

1 – Introduction

The need of high strenght sintered parts through the last years has been consistently
growing in the market. Since materials and processing have developed over the last years, it
has become possible to achieve martensitic microstructures directly from sintering (the so
called sinterhardening process) by combining forced gas cooling with a suitable alloy.
The equipment for sinterhardening differs from the conventional one just for the fast-
cooling unit right after the hot zone of the sintering furnace, as shown in the figure 1:
Figure 1 : Sintering furnace with fast cooling

Basically, this unit is a combination of fans and heat exchangers to promote a cold gas
flow through the parts on the belt. Some examples of how these units work are given
below :

Figure 2: Internal fans Figure 3: Internal fans Figure 4: External fans

downwards upwards and heat exchanger

Each furnace manufacturer has its own design and each of them has its advantages and
disadvantages regarding to heat exchanging capacity, homogeneity and maintenance.

As the cooling rate of a fast cooling unit is about 1/10 of an oil quench, it is necessary to
make use of more hardenable alloys, with higher concentration of Mo, Ni, Mn, Cr or a
combination of these elements. The temperature profile of a typical fast cooling unit is
shown in the figure 5:

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Figure 5: Temperature profile

As a result, the sinterhardening process is shorter, compared to the conventional one:

Conventional process Sinterhardening process

Compact Compact

Sinter Sinterharden

Quench Temper

Temper
Check

Check

Many advantages can be expected from one thermal step less in the production chain: less
handling, less distortion and cost reduction. The challenge is to get these advantages and
still keep the mechanical properties required.
Also, since the goal of the fast cooling is to achieve martensitic microstructures directly
from sintering, sizing operation is not possible and machining of cuts and holes on sintered
parts must be avoided.

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2 – Case study

Diffusion bonded alloys have shown good dimensional stability and excellent mechanical
properties after heat treatment along the years and are usually a good choice when
dimensional consistency and good response to heat treatment are required. For this reason,
we have compared conventionally sintered and carbonitrided MPIF FD-0200 to
sinterhardened MPIF FLC-4908 gears, compacted to GD 7.0 g/cm3 (weight ~ 100 g)
The FLC-4908 grade was chosen for the sinterhardening process because of its good
compressibility, good hardenability and also lower cost compared to FD-0200.
Table 1: Alloy nominal compositions and compressibility
Material %C %Cu %Ni %Mo Sintered density at 550 Mpa
FD-0200 - 1,5 1,75 0,5 7,00 g/cm3
FLC-4908 0,8 2,0 - 1,5 6,88 g/cm3

As the hardness and dimensions can be affected by different cooling rates, differences
could be expected from parts at different positions on the belt (for FLC-4908 parts) or in
the batch (for FD-0200 parts). In order to check those differences, FLC-4908 parts were
taken from the left side, center and right side of the belt, while the FD-0200 parts were
taken from the top, bottom, sides and center of the batch.

3 – Tests and results

Nine parts were taken as previously described to check hardness, strenght, size variation
and distortion, as follows:

• HRc was chosen to check hardness variation. As HRc is also influenced by density,
HV1 was also used to diminish this influence.
• A crush test was carried out on three different teeth of each part to test strenght.
• The bore was measured to check the size variation for both processes.
• The “W” dimension was chosen to check distortion, as it was measured all around
the parts.
• Metallographic samples were prepared to check differences in microstructures.

The results are shown below:

Table 2: As sintered
Results FD-0200 FLC-4908
HRc - 42,8 (σ = 0,9)
Bore (mm) σ = 0,002 σ = 0,002
W (mm) σ = 0,003 σ = 0,003

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Table 3: After tempering
Results FD-0200 FLC-4908
HRc 35,6 (σ = 1,4) 36,0 (σ = 0,7)
HV1 468 (σ = 39) 442 (σ = 24)
Crush test (Kgf) 442 (σ = 26) 484 (σ = 13)
Bore (mm) σ = 0,003 σ = 0,002
W (mm) σ = 0,006 σ = 0,004

Microstructures:

Figure 6: Microstructure of a
sinterhardened and tempered FLC-4908
gear. From the surface (bottom) to the
core, Martensite and Bainite. 200X –
Picral/Nital 2% .

Figure 7: Microstructure of a
carbonitrided, quenched and tempered
FD-0200 gear. From the surface (bottom)
to the core, Martensite, Austenite and
Ferrite. 200X – Picral/Nital 2% .

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 Figure 8: Same as figure 6 at higher
magnification. Martensite, Bainite and
small amount of retained Austenite.
1000X – Picral/Nital 2%

Figure 9: Same as figure 7 at higher

magnification. Martensite, Bainite, Ferrite
and more Austenite than in figure 8.
1000X – Picral/Nital 2%

4 – Conclusions
The sinterhardening process has proven to be a reliable and advantageous option for
hardened PM parts, wih the following benefits:
• Shorter process – less handling - lower cost.
• Sinterhardened parts have shown less size variation.
• Sinterhardened parts have shown less distortion.
• Sinterhardened parts have more consistent hardness and strenght due to less
difference in the microstructure within the part and from part to part.