Powder Metallurgy

Rates of diffusion of W, Mo, V, and Cr have been measured between high speed steel powders and iron powders in the presence of additional carbon. It is shown that the original site of the extra carbon is important and that maximum diffusion rates occur when there is about 1% extra carbon on the iron side the diffusion interfaces. The diffusion rates are related to microstructural developments in the diffusion zone and are interpreted in terms of the thermodynamic activity gradients developed.

The sintering behaviour of high carbon–high vanadium water atomised M35MHV HSS (1·8 wt-%C, 4·2 wt-%V) is analysed as a function of the nitrogen pressure in the sintering atmosphere. Uniaxially pressed compacts were sintered to full density (≥ 98%TD) under different N₂ atmospheres in a range of pressures from vacuum to 8 bar. It is observed that the optimum sintering temperature (OST) depends on the absorbed nitrogen and is as low as 1050°C when the nitrogen content in the steel is 1·2 wt-%. The absorbed nitrogen affects not only the OST but also the matrix and carbides composition and the phases present after sintering. Compared with other powders processed under the same conditions, it is shown that the amount of absorbed nitrogen depends not only on the nitrogen partial pressure in the sintering atmosphere but also on the amount of vanadium and carbon and even on the heating rate. Hardness, fracture toughness, and fracture strength values are reported after heat treatment.

PM Distaloy and Astaloy alloys have many applications in the automotive industry and are used in structural elements with different wear resistance values. Their main features are adequate density, hardness, tensile strength, and good ductility. For the purpose of the experiment presented here, Distaloy SA and Astaloy Mo powders, alloyed with various amounts of elemental boron powder, were used. The Distaloy and Astaloy alloys were produced through mixing, compacting, and sintering at t=1393 and 1473 K, and, after the completed sintering process, they were plasma nitrided at 793 K. Experimental results showed that if boron was added, while sintering, the shrinkage phenomena increased ( 1473 K) and some parameters of those alloys (density, hardness, and tensile strength) were improved. Upon the ion nitriding treatment of the surface of base Astaloy Mo samples, a surface layer was created composed of the ε solution and γ’ nitride, whereas the surface layer on the Distaloy SA base was mainly composed of a γ’ compound. Boron activates the sintering process of Distaloy SA and Astaloy Mo samples but it has no significant impact on the surface layer's thickness of Distaloy SA alloys as opposed to Astaloy Mo alloys in which boron promotes a greater thickness of surface layers along with a reduced depth of nitrogen diffusion.

This paper concerns the effect of processing conditions in metal injection moulding on the resultant properties of produced parts. A multicavities mould has been designed and manufactured in the laboratory for performing experiments on 316L based feedstock. A set of experiments covering injection moulding, debinding, and sintering stages have been realised, investigating the main role of the process parameters. The properties of the produced parts are analysed through SEM observations, mass measurements, and tensile and bending mechanical tests. The modelling and numerical simulation of the injection moulding stage has been developed based on a biphasic flow approach of the feedstock mixture. The powder volume fraction is considered as a key variable to describe phase segregation during moulding and allows powder contours to be found after the injection stage. Finally the mechanical properties of the parts are measured and identified. An inverse identification procedure combining experiments and simulation permits the results to be checked.

A new metal injection moulding system for 316L stainless steels has successfully been derived and tested. A mixture of small water atomised powder (average size 15 µm), larger gas atomised powder (average size 75 µm), and sintering additives has been coupled with a new water soluble binder system for economical powder injection moulding. The details for each process step and the effect of sintering additives are described. The binder system consists of poly (2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) as the leachable polymer, polyethylene as the backbone, and stearic acid as a surfactant and plasticiser. This binder system provides satisfactory mixture stability, excellent mouldability, and reasonably fast water leaching and thermal debinding rates. The optimum powder/binder compositions were determined using torque and capillary rheometry. Densification was by persistent liquid phase sintering through additives, such as nickel boride and boron. This 316L powder system was sintered to 7·9 g cm ^-3 (98·75% of theoretical) at 1285°C using nickel boride addition and at 1245°using boron addition. nickel boride additions are particularly effective at increasing the tensile strength and ductility. In contrast, the boron additions only increase the tensile strength and decrease ductility. Based on microstructure evaluations, this effect is traced to a continuous boride phase on the grain boundaries of the boron doped samples and a discontinuous boride phase on the grain boundaries of the nickel boride samples.

In the powder shaping process, friction is often considered as one of the main limiting factors since it can be the cause of bad green density distributions as well as ejection defects. Therefore, knowledge of this is important for better controlling the compaction stage. This paper makes an attempt to bring out the different process parameters (density, normal stress, sliding velocity, temperature, and displacement) which influence the friction between a standard iron powder and a tool in tungsten carbide. With this view, a sliding piece device has been built and is described. Several tests have been performed; from the results emerge a decrease of the friction coefficient with increasing density or normal stress, conversely the velocity increases the friction while temperature has no significant role. In this work, particular attention is given to the amplitude of the displacement showing that it can highly affect friction and wear of green parts. An attempt is made at explaining the observed phenomena and results are correlated with an analytical expression.

Ashby's map for dry sliding wear of wrought steels has been used as a guide to interpret the dry sliding wear behaviour of PM materials. It has been shown that this map is useful in understanding the acting wear mechanisms and also the experimental wear rates. For given tribological conditions, in terms of normalised pressure and sliding velocity, the sliding wear resistance of PM materials is similar to that of wrought steels, although a closer look at the experimental results highlights the peculiar role of porosity and of a heterogeneous microstructure. In particular, materials with a porosity content of about 10% and with an homogeneous microstructure display the best performances. Since mild wear in metals can be obtained through the formation of protective oxide glazes, steam treatment turned out to be a natural way of increasing the sliding wear resistance of PM ferrous materials. The ‘surface durability’ of steam treated materials was thus shown to depend on the quality of the layer, the applied load and the nature of the counterface. The role of the counterface and the opportunity to adopt other surface treatments to increase the sliding wear resistance of PM ferrous materials are also discussed.

The behaviour of Sn and Mg at the surface of an aluminium alloy powder particle during heating was investigated by in situ analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The intensity of the Sn3d photoelectron spectrum increases, according to the increase in the Mg content of the raw particles during heating to 825 K. Sn dissolved in the matrix of the raw particle moves to the particle surface in a liquid state at over 505 K. Sn concentrates at the inner region, which is about 60 nm in the depth from the surface. This phenomenon is independent of the Mg content of the raw particles. However, Mg is necessary for the appearance of Sn in a liquid state at the particle surface during heating because Mg acts to resolute the Al₂O₃ surface film by deoxidisation. The temperature when Sn appears in a liquid state coincides with that of Al in a metallic state after deoxidising the Al₂O₃ surface films. This is between 670 and 700 K.

Different parameters affect the electrical resistivity of green specimens. This paper presents the effect of the particle size distribution, the compacting pressure, and the oxidation of the powder on the electrical resistivity of green specimens fabricated with different powders (Fe, Zn, Ni, and Cu). The results show that the electrical resistivity increases when the compacting pressure decreases, the particle size is reduced and the oxidation increases. It indicates that the electrical resistivity is sensitive to powder surface characteristics and particle interfaces in green compacts. Electrical resistivity may therefore be used to study particle interfaces, evaluate green powder compact characteristics, and monitor powder oxidation.

A simple instability condition based on the Ziegler's continuum principles as applied to large plastic flow, is extended for delineating the regions of unstable metal flow during hot deformation of Nimonic AP-1 superalloy. The optimum hot working conditions for this material are suggested.

Double plasma flame treatments were carried out on spray dried Cr₂O₃ agglomerated powders to increase their apparent density. The powders that were subjected to the first densification treatment didn't show the entirely melted state, and were fully melted only after the second plasma treatment. Plasma densification resulted in powder size decreasing as well as apparent density of particles and also resulted in the fluidity increasing due to the powder melting and surface smoothing effects. However, some parts of the particles after the second treatment showed a hollowed structure, especially for a particle size above 30 µm. The influence of the thermal conductivity of powder and the gas pressure within aggregates exposed to the plasma flame in the particle densification process was discussed in detail. The powder density strongly influenced the structure of plasma sprayed coatings. The dense coatings with high hardness and high bond strength was achieved in the coatings produced from Cr₂O₃ powders after plasma densification.