EFFECT OF PROCESSING PARAMETERS ON SINTER HARDENING

摘要

Sinter hardening offers higher mechanical properties with less secondary operations in ferrous P/M materials. Although better sinter hardening grades of powders are becoming increasingly available, there is still limited understanding of the relationship between variations in the resulting properties and differences in the processing parameters. A study to look at the effect of variation in processing parameters on the mechanical properties was carried using Design of Experiments (DOE) methods. The effect of variations in graphite content and cooling rate on the properties of Ancorsteel 150HP with 2 wt.% copper was investigated. Ultimate tensile strength (UTS), 0.2% offset, sintered and tempered hardness, and elongation were measured. The actual data was fit to a model for each property and the variations observed were identified. The model was used to find the possible interaction effects between the processing variables and how it affected the properties. Finally, optimization of the properties was done. The current knowledge of the relationship between properties and processing are presented, and the results of the study are discussed.