Introduction to Powder Metallurgy PDF

Introduction

Metal powders are used in industry for a diversity of products, including catalysts, welding electrodes, paints, printing inks, explosives, etc, in all of which the powder particles retain their identities. Traditional powder metallurgy, on the other hand, in its simplest definition, is a process whereby a solid metal, alloy or ceramic in the form of a mass of dry particles, normally less than 150 microns in maximum diameter, is converted into an engineering component of predetermined shape and possessing properties which allow it to be used in most cases without further processing. The basic steps in the traditional process are those of powder production; compaction of the powder into a handleable preform; and 'sintering', which involves heating the preform to a temperature below the melting point of the major constituent when the powder particles lose their identities through inter-diffusion processes and the required properties are developed.

Edited by: F. Thümmler, R. Oberacker, I. Jenkins