This is an excerpt from Dean Howard's yearly State of the PM Industry article from MPIF. Thanks to material development and additive manufacturing opportunities, it's important for the gear and power transmission industries to monitor the trends, technologies and future forecasts in the powder metal market. The Impact of the Pandemic: During the pandemic, manufacturing in North America was disrupted, hitting the PM industry especially hard, as the automotive industry, the primary consumer of PM parts, came to a standstill. Shelter-in-place mandates resulted in more people cooking at home and provided time to renovate kitchens, garages, and laundry rooms. This was great for PM suppliers to small and large appliance manufacturers, until inventories of finished goods were exhausted, as assembly lines were shut-down due to the mandates.
展开▼
