Improvements in powder compressibility is a key industry objective of Powder Metallurgy (PM), because it plays a significant role in the economical and effective production of powder metal components, benefiting both the Cost and Performance of your sintered metal parts. To help improve the cost and performance outcomes to our customers, the Atlas Pressed Metal’s Innovation and Technology team investigated the use of warm tool compaction, and lubricant selection to improve the compressibility within certain metal powders to achieve increased density resulting in improved overall performance to meet customer needs.
Compressibility is impacted by several factors that may be adjusted to reach optimal process conditions, including:
The solid lubricant is used to help with the green strength of the compact, movement of the particles during the compaction process and facilitate the ejection of the component from the compaction die. Additionally, the solid lubricant protects the compaction tools from excessive wear, particularly at higher compaction pressures.
Warm tool compaction is a technique where the compaction tools are heated to assist in achieving the desired density and mechanical properties. Warm compaction reduces the yield strength of the metal particles allowing for a more deformable metal particle. Warm compaction is a single action compaction step versus using more costly techniques such as double press/double sinter or cold forging to achieve a similar increase in density.
Going beyond solid lubricant selection and warm tool compaction, the Innovation and Technology Team also looked at the type and chemistry of the base metal particles, changes in compaction temperatures of the warm tools and the addition of other elements to further improve compressibility to achieve specific densities for another customer application.
This additional investigation, illustrated in the chart below, shows that with management of these various factors impacting compressibility, improvements in both green density and sintered density may be achieved.
Our Innovation and Technology Team's research can help you improve both the Cost and Performance of your finished components!
We look forward to working with your team to take our innovations and make them production ready. Contact us today!