ENGINEERING METALLURGY

MOHAMMED IDREESH MOHAMED NADUTHODI MOHAMED SUHAIL MOHAMED YASER ARAFAT NAUSHAD

POWDER METALLURGY
Art of producing metal powders and using them to make serviceable object.

Two main operations of powder metallurgy is compacting and sintering

ADVANTAGE
The number of operations required to produce a finished part is often less than other fabrication methodologies Parts can be manufactured with controlled porosity. The process generates very little scrap Potentially very high production rates, especially compared to machining Parts can be manufactured with excellent wear resistant properties and friction co-efficient

SINTERING
Sintering is a method used to create objects from powders. The thermal treatment of a powder at a temperature below the melting point of the main constituent, for the purpose of increasing its strength by bonding together of the particles.
Sintering is traditionally used for manufacturing ceramic objects, but finds applications in almost all fields of industry.

SINTERING PROCEDURE
For production purposes sintering is carried out in continuous furnaces that comprise of 4 zones.

ZONE 1: LUBRICANTS BURNTS OFF The pressed parts are slightly heated to burn and sweep out lubricant.
ZONE 2: SINTERING The parts are heated to sintering temperature (7001120oC for steels). The atmosphere in this zone must be neutral or reducing.

ZONE 3: RECARBONIZATION During slow cooling to 850oC in endothemic and neutral or reducing atmosphere. The cooling rate is also controlled.

ZONE 4: COOLING The purpose of this zone is to cool down the part (from 850C) to ambient temperature. The atmosphere is slightly reducing, neutral or slightly oxidizing.
Once the part gets to room temperature sintering is finished and the next step involves finishing processes prior to selling.

TYPES OF SINTERING
1. Solid state sintering: Only solid phases are present at the sinter temperature. 2. Liquid phase sintering: Small amounts of liquid phase are present during sintering. 3. Reactive sintering: Particles react with each other to new product phases.

ADVANTAGES OF SINTERING
Sintering is widely used in the manufacturing of steel and many other such metal products.

In sintering materials can be produced in a controlled manner and also a uniform porosity can be maintained.
Even the leftover powder obtained after the completion of sintering, tend to be very pure and can be recycled. In sintering there is no need of adding any binding medium to stick the segregated powder particles together. Allows making complex geometries.

COMPACTION
Application of high pressure to the powders to form them into the required shape.
The conventional compaction method is pressing, in which opposing punches squeeze the powders contained in a die. The workpart after pressing is called a green compact, the word green meaning not yet fully processed. The green strength of the part when pressed is adequate for handling but far less than after sintering.

Pressing in PM: (1) filling die cavity with powder by automatic feeder; (2) initial and (3) final positions of upper and lower punches during pressing, and (4) ejection of part

ADVANTAGE
Close tolerance Control
Reduced Secondary Operation Machining required

Low manufacturing cost

Wide range of materials available

Thank you