What is metal powder?

A collection of metal particles less than one millimeter is referred to as metal powder. This is the primary raw material used in powder metallurgy and includes single metal, alloy, and certain refractory composite powder having metal characteristics.

What is powder metal parts?

Powder metal parts process is to make metal or use metal powder (or metal powder and non-metal powder mixture) as raw materials, after forming and MIM sintering, manufacturing metal materials, composite materials and various types of products technology. Generalized powder metal parts industry includes iron and stone tools, cemented carbide, magnetic materials . In the narrow sense, The powder metal parts industry only refers to powder metallurgy products, including powder metallurgy parts (accounting for the vast majority), oil-bearing and metal injection molding products.

 Powder metal components

Powder Metal Parts Characteristic

•  the density of the product is controllable, such as porous materials, good density materials;
•  fine grain, uniform microstructure, no component segregation;
•  near forming, raw material utilization rate > 95%;
•  less no cutting, cutting processing only 40~50%;
•  the composition of materials is controllable, which is conducive to the preparation of composite materials;
•  preparation of refractory metal, ceramic materials and nuclear materials.

Powder metal parts basic process flow

1, Pulverizing

Pulverizing is the process of making raw materials into powder. The commonly used pulverizing methods are oxide reduction method and mechanical method.

2, Mixing

Mixing is the process of making billet powder by mixing all kinds of required powder in a certain proportion and homogenizing it. Divided into dry, semi-dry and wet three, respectively for different requirements.

3, Forming

Forming is the process of making the blank with certain shape, size and density by loading the evenly mixed material into the pressing die under heavy pressure. Molding method is basically divided into pressure molding and no pressure molding. Pressure molding is the most widely used in molding.

4, Sintering

5. Post-processing

 After sintering treatment, according to different powder metal parts requirements, take a variety of ways. Such as finishing, dipping, machining, heat treatment and electroplating. In addition, in recent years, some new processes such as rolling and forging have also been applied to the sintering of powder metallurgy materials and achieved better results.

Powder sintering is a key process in powder metallurgy process. After forming, the billet is sintered to obtain the desired final physical and mechanical properties. Sintering in metallurgy is divided into unit sintering and multi – system sintering. In addition to ordinary sintering, there are loose sintering, immersion, hot pressing and other special sintering process.