Ancorsteel 4300, a high performance Cr-Si-Ni-Mo steel, was unveiled two years ago as the first in a series of powder metallurgy alloys that will simulate wrought steel compositions. Advantages of this alloy include good compressibility, high hardenability, and excellent dimensional stability. More important, however, is that this alloy has the ability to be effectively sintered at and maintain oxygen contents below 500 ppm. This unique blend of performance and processing capabilities provides static and dynamic properties that exceed those of conventional powder metallurgy alloys and approach wrought gearing materials. A second Cr-Si-Ni-Mo alloy has now been developed that offers complimentary performance levels at a lower Mo content. This manuscript reviews properties of the two chromium steels with comparisons to traditional sinter-hardened and heat-treated powder metallurgy alloys.

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.

Sintered steels are materials characterized by residual porosity, whose dimension and morphology strongly affect the fatigue crack growth behaviour of the material. Prismatic specimens were pressed at from Astaloy CrM powder and sintered varying the sintering temperature and the cooling rate. Optical observations allowed to evaluate the dimensions and the morphology of the porosity and the microstructural characteristics. Fatigue tests were performed to investigate the threshold zone and to calculate the Paris law. Moreover tests were performed to complete the investigation. Both on fatigue and samples a fractographic analysis was carried out to investigate the crack path and the fracture surface features. The results show that the Paris law crack growth exponent is around 6.0 for sintered and around 4.7 for sintered materials. The same dependence to process parameters is not found for .

Most PM components are exposed to cyclic loading over long periods of time, yet, the fatigue performance is often at best characterized by a fully reversed bending strength. The effects of density, deviating loading modes, external notches or mean stresses must usually be estimated. The amount of available data is nowadays sufficient to come to fact-based estimates.

Recently, automotive engines have changed to the silent chain system in order to reduce noise and to improve reliability. High contact fatigue strength is needed for the sprockets of silent chain system. As a result, a high-contact-fatigue-strength P/M material was developed using the technology of surface rolling, which densifies the surface layer of sintered parts. It was established that the contact fatigue strength of the developed material was a great improvement over that of the conventionally used sintered material.

A developed molybdenum hybrid-alloyed steel powder is based on a molybdenum prealloyed steel powder to which molybdenum powder particles are diffusion bonded. The sintered compact made of this powder has a finer pore structure than that of the conventional molybdenum prealloyed steel powder, because the ferritic iron phase with a high diffusion coefficient is formed in the sintering necks where molybdenum is concentrated resulting in enhanced sintering. The rolling contact fatigue strength of the sintered and carburized compacts made of this powder improved by a factor of 3.6 compared with that of the conventional powder due to the fine pore structures.

Laser pyrolysis is a very suitable method for the synthesis of a wide range of nanoparticles. A pilot unit based on this process has been recently developed at CEA. This paper reports results showing the possibility to produce SiC and nanoparticles at rates of respectively 1 and 0.2 kg/h and also the possibility to adjust the mean grain size of the particles and their structure by changing the laser intensity and reactants flow rates. First tests of liquid recovery have been also successfully performed to limit the risks of nanoparticles dissemination in the environement during their recovery.

We demonstrate the methodology of engineering the multi-component ceramic nanopowder with precise morphology by nanoblast calcinations decomposition of preliminary engineered nanoreactors. Multiple explosions of just melted embedded into preliminary engineered nanoreactors break apart the agglomerates due to the highly energetic impacts of the blast waves. Also, the solid-solubility of one component into the other is enhanced by the extremely high local temperature generated during each nano-explosion in surrounding area. This methodology was applied for production of agglomeratefree nano-aggregates of with an average size of 42 nm and nanopowder with an average aggregate size of 83 nm.

This study investigated a mechanism for controlling the shape of Cu nanocrystals fabricated using the polyol process, which considers the thermodynamic transition from a facetted surface to a rough surface and the growth mechanisms of nanocrystals with facetted or rough surfaces. The facetted surfaces were stable at relatively low temperatures due to the low entropy of perfectly facetted surfaces. Nanocrystals fabricated using a coordinative surfactant stabilized the facetted surface at a higher temperature than those fabricated using a non-coordinative surfactant. The growth rate of the surface under a given driving force was dependent on the surface structure, i.e., facetted or rough, and the growth of a facetted surface was a thermally activated process. Surface twins decreased the activation energy for growth of the facetted surface and resulted in rod- or wire-shaped nanocrystals

The preparation of composite powders for plasma spraying by an in-house designed mechanofusion process is investigated. Results show that dry particle coating depends on the chemical and mechanical properties of powders. In metal/oxide and metal/oxide/carbide powder mixtures, fine ceramic particles coat the surface of the metallic coarser particles. A nearly rounded shape of the final composite particles is induced by the mechanical energy input with no formation of new phases. However with the carbide/metal powdered system, only an intimate mixture of components is achieved. It is suggested that the coating mechanism is governed by agglomeration and rolling phenomena.

Ultrafine Au-Pb particles prepared by two method, (1) simultaneous evaporation of Au and Pb in inert gas and (2) subsequent vapor condensation of Pb in a differentially evacuated tube onto flying Au nanoparticles prepared by gasevaporation technique, were observed by electron microscopy. In the method (1), the particles that grew at the region where the two smoke masses converged, consisted of alloy phases. In the method (2), the particles consisted of two or three phases of Au, , and Pb phases in turn from the inner part, Pb-rich particles being composed of only two phases of and Pb.

Seasonal changes have been recognized in particle characteristics and forming characteristics of iron powder with insulated coating for a compacted magnetic core because of its high hygroscopicity, due to its phosphate coating and resin binder additives. For this reason, particle characteristics and molding characteristics of the powder with diverse water absorbtivity have been studied. The result shows that the higher the volume of absorbed water, the worse the fluidity becomes, resulting in the reduction in both springback during the molding process and expansion reduction after the heat treatment. The requirement on dimension accuracy for the finished product can be satisfied with an additional drying process on the material powder, which contributes to maintain its water volume constant.

A QM-ISP-4 Planetary Mill was employed to activate mechanically the mixtures of anatase and corundum at room temperature for different times. The milled powder mixtures were then sintered at for 1 h. The XRD results showed that the milled powder mixtures were completely transformed into after sintering, except the mixtures milled for 5 and 10 hours. The SEM observations showed the typical morphology of rod-like vary in the range: widths from 0.6 to , and lengths from 3.0 to . The rod-like formation was attributed to the positive effects caused by the mechanical activation.

Nb-Ti alloys were hydrogenated to prepare fine and contamination-free powders. Cracks were introduced in the alloys when they were annealed at 1473 K and cooled in a hydrogen atmosphere. The fragments produced by hydrogen-induced cracking are brittle and the friability enhanced with the Ti content of the alloy, which is beneficial for further refinement of particle size. We also demonstrate that Nb-Ti powders with the average particle size less than 1 m can be produced by ball milling at a temperature lower than 203 K. Furthermore, hydrogen-free powders can then be obtained by annealing above the temperature corresponding to hydrogen desorption from Nb solid solution.

A hyrdrothermal synthesis has been developd to prepare rod-like crystals of copper oxide using copper nitrate trihydrate as a function of synthesis temperature, stirring speed and solution pH value. The properties of the fabricated crystals were studied using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and particle size analysis. The morphology of the synthesized CuO was dependent on both the pH value of the solution and the morphology of the seed materials. Synthesized particles have regular morphologies and a uniform size distribution.

Advanced melting technology is now being employed in the manufacture of stainless steel powders. The new process currently includes electric arc furnace (EAF) technology in concert with Argon Oxygen Decarburization (AOD), High Performance Atomizing (HPA) and hydrogen annealing. The new high performance-processing route has allowed the more consistent production of existing products, and has allowed enhanced properties, such as improved green strength and green density. This paper will review these processing changes along with the potential new products that are being developed utilizing this technology. These include high strength stainless steels such as duplex and dual phase as well as stainless steel powders used in high temperature applications such as diesel filters and fuel cells.

The effect of the preparation factors, such as the feeding mode and rate of raw materials, the reaction temperature and the surfactant on the size distribution of molybdenum trioxide particle were investigated by orthogonal test. The optimum conditions for the preparation of precursors are as following; opposite feeding fast, reaction temperature of and adding dispersant.

X-ray analysis on iron ores and reduced iron powders revealed that the main acid-insoluble substances were hexagonal and tetragonal quartz, another substances were sillimanite, alumina-silicate, an unnamed zeolite, all contained Si and Al. Their particle size was in the range of . Statistics analysis showed that the AIC for high-grade magnetite powder was ) during the latest five months. The predicting value for reduced iron powder should be 0.179%. However, the testing value for reduced iron powder was . The limited difference of 0.013% might imply rare pollution coming from the reduction and milling processes. The most important step for control AIC should be the separation process of iron ore powders.