In the present work, we use multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) as the starting material for the fabrication of sintered carbon steel. A comparison is made with conventionally sintered carbon steel, where graphite is used as the starting material. Milling is performed using a horizontal mill sintered in a vacuum furnace. We analyze the grain size, number of pores, X-ray diffraction patterns, and microstructure. Changes in the physical properties are determined by using the Archimedes method and Vickers hardness measurements. The result shows that the use of MWCNTs instead of graphite significantly reduces the size and volume of the pores as well as the grain size after sintering. The addition of Y2O3.to the Fe-MWCNT samples further inhibits the growth of grains.

The mechanical properties of sintered low alloy steels were analysed using Finite Element Methods (FEM), in which the powder is modelled as an elastic–plastic continuum material. A quantitative analysis of microstructure was correlated with tensile and fatigue behavior to understand the influence of pore size, shape, and distribution on mechanical behavior. Tensile strength, Young’s modulus, strain-to-failure, and fatigue strength all increased with a decrease in porosity. The decrease in Young’s modulus with increasing porosity was predicted by analytical modeling. Two-dimensional microstructure-based finite element modeling showed that the enhanced tensile and fatigue behavior of the denser steels could be attributed to smaller, more homogeneous, and more spherical porosity which resulted in more homogeneous deformation and decreased strain localization in the material. The relationship between relative density of P/M steels and mechanical behavior is also obtained from FEA and compared with the experimenta data. Good agreement between the experimental and FEA results is observed, which demonstrates that FEA can capture the major features of the P/M steels behaviour during loading. The implications of pore size, morphology, and distribution on the mechanical behavior and fracture of P/M steels are discussed. It is therefore demonstrated that FEA can predict the possible mechanism of failure during loading.

Manganese is an alloying element that improves the hardenability of steels. It could be a valid substitute in sintered steels, increasing mechanical properties. The hardenability of three low alloy Mn steels was studied to establish the influence of manganese on the heat treatments. The Grossmann approach was adopted, which uses cylinders with different diameters to induce different gradients of cooling rate in the cross section. The correlation of microstructure and microhardness to the actual cooling rate makes the results independent on the process parameters and applicable to each industrial condition, once the actual cooling rate in the parts is known.

Wrought Si-steels are generally used for electromagnetic valves, which are needed good response. To date, Hitachi Powdered Metals Co., Ltd. have produced Fe-Si base sintered magnetic material, EU-52, which shows a magnetic flux density of more than 1.25T at 2000A/m and a maximum permeability of more than 3500. However these magnetic properties are lower than that of wrought Si-steels. Because EU-52 has a low density of 7.2Mg/m3. For improving the magnetic properties, it is necessary to increase the density of sintered cores. To increase density, a new mixing method of coating fine Si powders on atomized iron powders was developed, for avoiding the Kirkendall effect. As the result, developed P/M Fe-Si magnetic cores shows higher density of 7.38Mg/m3, higher magnetic flux density of 1.48T at 2000A/m and higher maximum permeability of 6800.

This work presents mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of duplex stainless steels obtained through powder metallurgy starting from austenitic, martensitic powders by controlled addition of alloying elements in the right quantity to obtain the chemical composition of the structure similar to biphasic one. In the mixes preparations the Schaffler's diagram was taken into consideration. Prepared mixes of powders have been sintered in a vacuum furnace with argon backfilling. After sintering rapid cooling was applied using nitrogen. Corrosion properties have been studied through electrochemical methods in 1M NaCl.

The present paper investigates the possibilities of niobium using for the mechanical properties of the common low alloyed Cu-Ni-Mo-C sintered structural steels enhancing. On both thermodynamic and experimental bases there were demonstrated the Nb nitrides/carbides/carbonitrides preferential formation in these steels during sintering in dissociated ammonia at both common and elevated temperatures. The obtained results for fine Nb powder and 0.3% graphite additions to Distaloy AB iron base powder cold compacted and sintered in dissociated ammonia proved the expected strengthening effect, leading to higher mechanical properties of the processed steels than of the common Cu-Ni-Mo-C ones.

The influence of porosity (P) on Young's modulus (E) and Poisson's ratio of sintered steels produced from four types of steel powders was investigated. The values of E and depend mainly on the value of P, and those were a little affected by alloying elements. The relationships between E, , and P were described as following equations: and , where subscript 0 means P = 0, and and are empirical constants. These approximate equations showed good agreement with empirical results.

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.

Characteristics of plasma nitriding and nitrocarburizing for steam treated sintered steels were studied. Fe-0.8%C powder containing Ni, Cu were sintered at 112 and steamed at 52. Temperature of plasma nitriding and nitrocarburizing was varied from 50 to . Gas mixture of nitriding was set at : =80:20 (vol.%), but was added 1~2 vol.% for nitrocarburizing. Steam treatment for sintered steels brought not only the formation of oxide layer but also decarburizing near the surface. Decrease in hardness near the surface resulted from the formation of ferrite due to decarburizing. Thus, the low hardness was recovered not with plasma nitriding but with plasma nitrocarburixing. Wear resistance properties of steamed specimens and ni-trocarburized specimens were better than those of nitrided specimens according to the pin-on-disk wear test. On the other hand, the fatigue life of steamed specimen was shorter than that of nitrocaiburized specimen.

MATERIAL AND PROCESS VARIABLES THAT STRONGLY AFFECT THE CORROSION RESISTANCE OF PA4 STAINLESS STEELS, INCLUDE : ALLOY COMPOSITION, POWDER CLEANLINESS, NITROGEN, OXYGEN AND GARBON CONTENTS, CHROMIUM DEPLETION DUE TO SURFACE EVAPORATION AND SINTERED DENSITY. THE OPTIMUM PROCESS PARAMETERS FOR DELUBRICATION AND SINTERING THAT RESULT IN LOWEST LEVELS OF NITROGEN, OXYGEN AND CARBON AND MINIMUM LEVELS OF CHROMIUM DEPLETION WILL BE PRESENTED, FOR A NUMBER OF AUSTENTIC AND FERRITIC STAINLESS STEELS. THE EFFECT OF SINTERED DENSITY ON THE CORROSION RESISTANCE OF BOTH AUSTENITIC AND FERRITIC GRADES OF STAINLESS STEEL WILL ALSO BE COVERED.

Commercial pure iron powder and iron powder of coated 0.45% phosphorus were mixed with graphite powder in dry mixer to control carbon content from 0 wt% to 0.8 wt%. Mixed powder was pressed in the mould under the pressure of 510 MPa. Compacts were sintered at 118 for 40 min. in cracked ammonia gaseous atmosphere. Some of these sintered specimens were quenched in oil, and tempered in Ar gas. All of these specimens were investigated for microstructure, density and hardness in relation to coated phosphorus and carbon content. The results obtained were as follows: (1) The microstructure of the sintered speciments revealed that the amount of pearlite was increased with increasing C content but decreased by P-addition. (2) The P-addition affected the microstructure of pores in which the pore shape became round and its mean size was decreased by P-addition. (3) After tempering of sintered specimens the structure of pearlite was changed from fine structure to coarse one in P added specimen. (4) Hardness was higher in P added specimens.