The effect of particle size distribution on green and sintered properties of Fe-Cr-Mo prealloy powder was investigated in this study. For the study, prealloyed Fe-Cr-Mo powders with different particle sizes were mixed as various ratios and cold compacted at various pressure and sintered at for 30 min, atmosphere in the continuous sintering furnace. The results shows that the powders with large particle size distribution have high compressibility and low ejection force. However the green strength are much less than those with small particle size distribution. Tensile prperties of the sintered specimes with large particles size also have high strength and elongation.

Crack initiation and short crack propagation was studied on the polished notched surfaces of Cr-Mo prealloy sintered steels with 7.35 sintered density. An ultrasonic resonance test system operating in push-pull mode at 20 kHz and R=-1 was used. It showed that crack initiation took place in several places, small cracks growing oriented to the local pore structure rather than to stress orientation. Their growth rate is markedly higher than the corresponding one of long cracks. Finally, several microcracks join to form a dominant crack.