It is well known that the Cu-Cr alloys are very difficult to be made by conventional sintering methods. This difficulty originates both from limited solubility of Cr in the Cu matrix and from limited sintering temperature due to high vapor pressures of Cr and Cu components at the high temperature. Densification of Cu-50%Cr Powder compacts by conventional Powder metallurgy Process has been studied. Three kinds of sintering methods were tested in order to obtain high-density sintered compacts. Completely densified Cu-Cr compacts could be obtained neither by solid state sintering method nor by liquid phase sintering method. Both low degree of shrinkage and evolution of large pores in the Cu matrix during the solid state sintering are attributed to the anchoring effect of large Cr particles, which inhibits homogeneous densification of Cu matrix and induces pore generation in the Cu matrix. In addition, the effect of undiffusible gas coming from the reduction of Cu-oxide and Cr-oxide was observed during liquid phase sintering. A two-step sintering method, solid state sintering followed by liquid phase sintering, was proved to have beneficial effect on the fabrication of high-dendsity Cu-Cr sintered compacts. The sintered compacts have properties similar to those of commercial products.

Densificationbehavior of conventional austenitic stainless steel powder compacts was studied by comparing the relative density of sintered compact(Ds)with that of green compacts(Dg)prepared with various catbon contents and P/M process. Dg of 304and 316 powders by warm compaction under pressure of 686 MPa at heating temperature of powder(553K) and dies (573K) were 80% and 81%, repectively, whichwere 2 and 3% higher than those of conventional green compacts at the same pressure. Ds of 304 compacts sintered at 1373K in H2 gas has the same value of 84% max. regardless of compacting temperature, and Ds of 316 compacts at the same sintering conditions were 80% by conventional compaction and 83% by warm compaction. Oxygen contents of 304 and 316 sintered compacts were increased 1.43∼2.94% and 0.010∼0.921% higher than those of raw powders and warm green compacts, respectively. In other case, Ds of 316 compacts sintered at 1573K in vacuum had the same value of 86%max. And Ds of 316 compacts at the same sintering conditions were 83% and 86% by conventional and warm compaction, respectively. Oxygen contents of 304 sintered compacts were 0.321% and 0.360%, and in case of 316, they were 0.419% and 0.182% by the respective compating condition. With carbon additions in the range 0.1∼0.6% Ds increased to the extent of 86∼89% in 304 sintered compacts, and to 82∼84% and 85∼87% in 316 according to different two compacting peocesses compared to those of sintered compacts without carbon addition.

The pure Ti, Ni and carbon powders were reaction milled to synthesize the TiC-Ni based cermet powders with ultrafine microstructures. After milling, the ultrafine TiC or amorphous Ti-Ni phase was obtained, respectively, according to the milling condition. The effects of milling variables on the synthesizing behavior of the powders were investigated in detail. The sintered TiC-Ni based cermet of the reaction milled powders consisted of very fine TiC of 0.2~1.5m, as compared with that of a commercial cermet of 3~5m. This demonstrates the potenial of reaction milling as an effective processing route for the preparation of cermet materials.

Sintering kinetics of ball-milled was studied with the addition of Ni. powder with the average particle size of 1 was obtained from ball-milling of 10 powder. Small amount of Ni was added to the ball-milled powder by salt solution and reduction method. The powder was compacted into cylindrical shape at 200 MPa and isothermally sintered in a atmosphere at the temperature range of 1100~ for 3~600 minutes. The changes of linear shrinkage and sintered density were monitored as a function of sintering time. The microstructure was observed by using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Phases were identified by X-ray diffratometer and electro-probe micro analysis. Sintering kinetics of Ni-added powder was compared to as-milled powder and the apparent activation energy was calculated from Arrhenius plot.

The activated sintering behavior of powder compacts with addition of 0.5 and 1.0 wt.%Ni during the sintering under As atmosphere was studied. The shrinkage was measured and the microstructures were observed by SEM (scanning electron microscopy) and BEI (backscattered electron image) along with the phase analysis by EDS during heating up to 155 and holding for various time at 155. The most of shrinkage occurred upon heating and 92% of theoretical density was attained after sintering for 1 hr at 155. However, little shrinkage ensued even for prolonged sintering over 1 hr at 155. A liquid film formed at about 135 along necks and grain boundaries. The polyhedral grain structure composed of and across the grain boundary developed at 155. It was concluded that the activated sintering of powder by Ni led to the diffusion of Si into Ni decreasing the liquidus temperature and the enhanced diffusion of Mo and Si through such a liquid phase and/or interboundary of .

In most of sintered metal powder compacts, the sintered density distribution is controlled to be as high and uniform as possible to ensure the required mechanical properties. In general, the density distribution in the compacts is not uniform and not easy to measure. In the present study, a method for measuring the density distribution was developed, based on the indentation force equation by which the hardness and the relative density were related. The indentation force equation, expressed as a function of strength constant, workhardening coefficient and relative density, was obtained by finite element analysis of rigid-ball indentation on sintered powder metal compacts. The present method was verified by comparing the predicted density distribution in the sintered Fe-0.5%C-2%Cu compacts with that obtained by experiments, in which the density distribution was directly measured by machining the compacts from the outer surface progressively.

During sintering of very porous green bodies, as obtained by compaction of hard powders - such as tungsten carbide or ceramics - or by injection moulding, important shrinkage occurs. Due to heterogeneous green density field, gravity effects, friction on the support, thermal gradients, etc., this shrinkage is often non-uniform, which' may induce significant shape changes. As the ratio of compact dimension to powder size is very high, the mechanics of continuum is relevant to model such phenomena. Thus numerical techniques, such as the finite element method can be used to simulate the sintering process and predict the final shape of the sintered part. Such type of simulation has much been developed in the last decade firstly for hot isostatic pressing and next for die compaction. Finite element modelling has been recently applied to free sintering. The simulation of sintering should be based on constitutive equations describing the thermo-mechanical behaviour of the material under any state of stress and any temperature which may arise within the sintering body. These equations can be drawn either from experimental data or from micromechanical models. The experiments usually consist in free sintering and sinter-forging tests. Indeed applying more complex loading conditions at high temperature under controlled atmosphere is delicate. Micromechanical models describe the constitutive behaviour of aggregates of spheres from the deformation of two-sphere contact either by viscous flow or grain boundary diffusion. Such models are not able to describe complex microstructure and mechanisms as observed in real materials but they can give some basic information on the formulation of constitutive equations. Practically both experimental and theoretical approaches can be coupled to identify the constitutive equations. Such procedure has been performed for modelling the sintering of compacts obtained by die pressing of a mixture of tungsten carbide and cobalt powders. The constitutive behaviour of this material during sintering has been described by a linear viscous constitutive model, whose functions have been fitted from results of free sintering and sinter-forging experiments. This model has next been introduced in ABAQUS finite element code to simulate the sintering of heterogeneous green compacts of various geometries at constant temperature. Examples of simulations are shown and compared with experiments.

Densification behavior and grain growth of tool steel powder compacts during pressureless sintering, sinter forging, and hot isostatic pressing were investigated. Experimental data were compared with results of finite element calculations by using the constitutive model of Abouaf and co-workers and that of McMeeking and co-workers. Densification and deformation of tool steel powder compacts were studied by implementing power-law creep, diffusional creep, and grain growth into the finite element analysis. The shape change of a powder compact in the container during hot isostatic pressing was also studied. The theoretical models did not agree well with experimental data in sinter forging, however, agreed well with experimental data in hot isostatic pressing.

The microstructure evolution during sintering of a compact being composed of three layers of (WC-15%Co)/Fe powder mixture with different Fe contents has been observed. The Fe contents in the respective (WC-15%Co)/Fe layers were varied by 20%. 50%, and 90% in sequence by volume from a top layer to a bot- tom layer. The sintering temperatures and times were varied from 110 to 125 and from 1 h to 4 h, The compact layer was not densified below 120 in 4 h. Appropriate sintering temperature and time conditions for making a multi-layered hard metal compact were determined as 125 and 3 h, respectively.

The effect of the role of alloyed components on the densification of two kind of high speed steel (mixed and prealloyed powder), which were sintered at 1403~ 1573 K for 7.2 ks in vacuum, was investigated. The results obtained were as follows. (1) Without the presence of Vanadium (V), the relative density of sintered compacts (Ds) could not reached the density of 100% regardless of the. elements in the compacts. (2) The addition of V up to 2 mass% did not result In the complete densification when the carbon content was fixed at 2% in the compact. (3) With the fixed amount of V of 7%, Ds decreased with the increase of the carbon content. (4) The addition of mixed fine powder to the prealloyed powder in the range of 20 to 40% provided the complete densification and carbide panicles of 1~2 through the solid phase sintering. (5) The V element played important role in controlling the complete or incomplete densification of the sintered compacts in the alloyed component because of its formation of stable oxide and carbide as well as the low equilibrium pressure of CO gas.

For more than a decade components of low alloy iron powder with nickel and/or molybdenum for general engineering applications have been manufactured from powder metal. In the time to come such PM steel components will gain increasing significance. Because of various manufacturing difficulties they are mostly produced in two separate steps - sintering and hardening - which means high energy and labour requirements. The paper describes how such PM components are produced in just one run through a conveyor belt furnace with automatic atmosphere control and gas quenching zone. Energy and labour costs are low and reproducible quality is exceilent. The mechanical properties obtained with some powder alloys are presented as well.