Properties of Powders and Sintered Materials

Properties of Powders and Sintered Materials

The successful application of iron and steel powders as raw materials in the
manufacturing of structural parts, is related to a number of specific powder
properties:

• Flowability (here expressed as flow rate) is an important factor, as is

Apparent Density during filling of the die cavity.

• Powder compressibility affects the density that can be obtained, and

thereby also the properties after sintering.

• Spring-back value is important for calculating the dimensions of the

compacting tool in relation to the final dimensions of the part.

• Sufficient green strength is required to prevent cracks during ejection of

the part after compaction, and to allow transportation of compacts from
the press to the sintering furnace.

All these properties are affected by the particle shape and the particle size
distribution of a specific powder. Sponge iron powder exhibits more
irregular and porous powder particles, which results in higher green strength
compared to water atomized iron powders. Atomized powders have higher
compressibility compared to sponge powders.

On page 9 powder properties are presented as a comparison of some

common iron base powders. Flow and apparent density are presented for
pure powders. Compressibility, green strength and spring-back are presented
for powders with 0.6% Kenolube® added to the mix.

Water atomization process allows alloying elements to be added to the

molten steel before atomization. A range of pre-alloyed powders are
available under the trademark Astaloy®. By pre-alloying, mechanical
properties of the sintered material are improved while the compressibility is
lower as compared to pure iron powders.

7
Iron and steel powders for sintered components

Distaloy® powders are based on pure iron powder or iron powder

3
pre-alloyed with 1.5% molybdenum (Astaloy Mo) to which alloying
elements of fine particle size are bonded by partial diffusion. This technique 3
avoids segregation of alloying elements and improves dimensional stability.
2
Good compressibility is maintained with only partial diffusion of alloying

Flow (s/50 g)
elements to the iron powder particles. 2

1
STARMIX® and DENSMIX® introduce organic binders to the powder mix.
With bonded mixes, dusting of fine particle size additives is eliminated. 1

Segregation of alloying elements is avoided which improves dimensional

stability.

With DENSMIX® warm compaction is made possible. By heating both the

powder and press tool, density is improved by 0.1 – 0.2 g/cm3, which
improves the mechanical properties of the sintered material. Also the green
strength is greatly improved allowing some machining operations to be
7.
carried out in green state. This substantially improves life time of the cutting
7.
tool. 7.
7.
The sintered properties obtained with a specific iron powder grade depend

Green density (g/cm³)

6.
on several factors, including density, sintering time, temperature, atmosphere 6.
6.
and both type and content of added alloying elements. Extensive information
6.
of this type is present in this technical catalogue for most of the available 6.
powder grades. 5.
5.
For a brief survey of sintered properties of some common materials, the 5.
5.
diagrams on page 10 show the tensile strength, hardness and elongation.

Materials 1 – 4 were compacted at 600 MPa, resulting in densities in the

range 6.85 – 7.10 g/cm3 while materials 5 – 12 were compacted to a density
of 7.10 g/cm3. All materials were sintered at 1120°C for 30 minutes in
0.4
endothermic atmosphere for base iron powders, and in 90/10 N2/H2
atmosphere for diffusion alloyed powders and Astaloy powders. 0.3

0.3
(%)

0.2
Springback (%)
Spring-back

0.2

0.1

0.1

0.0

0.0

8
 Properties of Powders and Sintered Materials

Flow rate Apparent density

35
3.1
30
3.0
2.9
25
2.8
Flow (s/50 g)

AD (g/cm³)
20 2.7
2.6
15 2.5
2.4
10
2.3
5 2.2
2.1
0 2.0
MH80.23 SC100.26 ABC100.30 MH80.23 SC100.26 ABC100.30
NC100.24 ASC100.29 NC100.24 ASC100.29

Compressibility (0.6% Kenolube) Green strength (0.6% Kenolube)

Compacting pressure (tsi) Compacting pressure (tsi)
10 20 30 40 50 60 10 20 30 40 50 60
7.6 40
g
7.4
35 5000
7.2
7.0 30
Green density (g/cm³)

4000
Green strength (MPa)

6.8

Green strength (psi)

25
e 6.6
6.4 20 3000
n MH80.23
6.2
NC100.24 15
6.0 2000
SC100.26
5.8 10
ASC100.29
5.6 1000
ABC100.30 5
5.4
5.2 0 0
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Compacting pressure (MPa) Compacting pressure (MPa)

Spring-back (0.6% Kenolube)

Compacting pressure (tsi)
10 20 30 40 50 60
0.40

0.35

0.30
(%)

0.25
Springback (%)
Spring-back

0.20

0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Compacting pressure (MPa)

9
 Iron and steel powders for sintered components

Iron base powders Distaloy powders Astaloy powders

1000 1000 1000
Pla
900 900 900
Spo
800 800 800
Tensile Strength (MPa)

700 700 700

600 600 600

500 500 500

400 400 400

300 300 300

200 200 200

100 100 100

0 0 0

400 400 400

350 350 350

300 300 300

Hardness, HV10

250 250 250

200 200 200

150 150 150

100 100 100

50 50 50

0 0 0

12 12 12

10 10 10

8 8 8
Elongation (%)

6 6 6

4 4 4

2 2 2

0 0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1. NC100.24 + 2%Cu + 0.6%C 5. Distaloy AB + 0.5%C 9. Astaloy 85 Mo + 0.5%C

2. SC100.26 + 2%Cu + 0.6%C 6. Distaloy AE + 0.5%C 10. Astaloy Mo + 0.5%C
3. ASC100.29 + 2%Cu + 0.6%C 7. Distaloy DC + 0.5%C 11. Astaloy A + 0.5%C
4. PASC60 8. Distaloy HP + 0.5%C 12. Astaloy CrM + 0.4%C

10