* Adopted from Manufacturing, Engineering & Technology, Fifth Edition, by Serope Kalpakjian and Steven R.

Schmid. ISBN 0-13-148965-8. © 2006 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All rights reserved.

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 Types of manufacturing processes

Manufacturing
How is the input
Processes material changed?

Sheet Polymer
Deformation Casting Metal Processes Machining Finishing Assembly

Extrusion Centrifugal Bending Blow molding Boring Anodizing Automated

Forging Die casting Blanking Casting Drilling Honing Bonding
Rolling Investment Drawing Compression molding Facing Painting Brazing
Bar drawing Permanent mold Punching Extrusion Grinding Plating Manual
Wire drawing Sand casting Shearing Injection Molding Milling Polishing Riveting
Spinning Thermoforming Planing Soldering
Transfer molding Turning Welding
Sawing
ECM, EDM
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Overview of processes

Module 8 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University Technology MARA 3

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Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University Technology MARA
 Overview
Definition :
• A processing technology in which parts are produced by
compacting and sintering metallic and/or nonmetallic
powders.
• A typical example of an additive manufacturing process.
• Can be mass produced to net shape or near net shape,
eliminating or reducing the need for subsequent machining.
• Parts as large as 20 kg can be produced, but most products
are less than 2 kg.

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 Overview
• The largest tonnage of metals for PM is steel and alloys of
aluminum.
• Other PM materials are copper, nickel, tungsten, ceramic
materials, etc.

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 Applications
• production of net-shape or near-net shape parts made of
expensive materials. PM process is capable of less than 3%
scrap losses.
• parts with porosity such as filters can be made.
• bearings especially so-called permanently lubricated bearings,
in which air pores in the PM parts are filled with oil (process of
impregnation)
• parts of certain metals and metal alloys that are difficult to
fabricate by other methods (carbide tool inserts, tungsten,
ceramics, etc.)
• parts of materials with special and unique properties (alloys
that cannot be produced by other processes)
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 Limitations
There are limitations and disadvantages associated with PM
processing. These include:

• high tooling costs vs. expensive raw materials (powders)

• variation in material density and mechanical properties
across the volume
• relatively long parts are difficult to manufacture
• difficult storing and handling of powders (degradation with
time and free hazard with particular metallic powders).

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 Engineering Powders
Classification of powders:

• The starting material in PM

consist of fine particles of
uniform sizes so-called the
engineering powders.

• Produced from raw metallic or

nonmetallic powders, which
contains particles of different
sizes by separation of particles
according to their size.

• The procedure of separating the

powders by size is called
classification
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Technology MARA
 Cont.
Classification of powders:

• Powders are classified by passing

them through a series of screens
of progressively smaller mesh size.

• The particle size is defined by the

so-called mesh count, term that
refers to the number of openings
per linear inch of mesh.

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 Particle’s Properties
Particle shape:
• The measure of particle shape is the ratio of maximum dimension to
minimum one for a given particle.

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 Cont.
Surface area :

For any particle shape, the shape factor, Ks, defines the area-to-volume
ratio,

A : the surface area,

V : the volume
D : the diameter of a sphere of equivalent volume as the non-spherical
particle.

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 Production of Metallic Powders
Atomization
• Involves conversion of molten metal into a spray of droplets that solidifies
into powder
• There are a lot of methods based on gas or water atomization, or on
centrifugal atomization

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 Cont.
• The most popular one is the water atomization, in which a high-velocity
stream of water is utilized to atomize the liquid metal.

Chemical reduction
• This method includes a variety of chemical reactions by which metallic
compounds are reduced to elemental metal powder.

Electrolysis
• In this method, an electrolytic cell is set up in which the source of desired
metal is the anode.

• It is slowly dissolved and deposited on the cathode from where the deposit
is removed, washed and dried.

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 Powder Metallurgy Process
Overview :
Three major steps:

(1) blending and mixing of

powders,

(2) compaction, and

(3) sintering, and a number of

optional and finishing
secondary operations.

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 Cont.

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 Blending and Mixing
Blending : mixing powder of the same chemical composition but different
sizes
Mixing : combining powders of different chemistries

Blending and mixing are accomplished by mechanical means:

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 Cont.
Except for powders, some other ingredients are usually added:

1. Lubricants
• to reduce the particles-die friction

2. Binders
• to achieve enough strength before sintering

3. Deflocculants
• to improve the flow characteristics during feeding

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 Compaction
• Blended powders are pressed in dies
under high pressure to form them
into the required shape.

• The work part after compaction is

called a green compact or simply a
green, the word green meaning not
yet fully processed.

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 Compaction Machines

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 Compaction Results
Pressure and density distributions after compaction
As a result of compaction, the density
of the part, called the green density is
much greater than the starting
material density, but is not uniform in
the green.

The density and therefore mechanical

properties vary across the part volume
and depend on pressure in
compaction

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 Cont.
There are different ways to improve the density distribution:
• Application of double acting press and two moving punches in
conventional compaction

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 Cont.
• Isostatic pressing
Pressure is applied from all directions against the powder, which is
placed in a flexible mold:

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 Sintering
• Compressed metal powder is heated in a controlled-atmosphere furnace
to a temperature below its melting point, but high enough to allow
bounding of the particles:

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 Cont.
A series of sketches shows a microscopic scale changes that occur during
sintering of metallic powders

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 Finish Operations
A number of secondary and finishing operations can be applied after sintering,
some of them are:

• Sizing : cold pressing to improve dimensional accuracy

• Coining : cold pressing to press details into surface
• Impregnation : oil fills the pores of the part
• Infiltration : pores are filled with a molten metal
• Heat treating, plating, painting

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 Design Consideration
The next design requirements are essential for PM parts:
• The shape of the parts must be as simple as possible.
• Parts should be made with the widest tolerances. The PM process is
capable of achieving tolerances of bigger than 0.1 mm.
• Hole and grooves must be parallel to the direction of ejection

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 Cont.
• Sharp corners, radii, thin section must be avoided. Minimum wall
thickness is 1.5 mm. Corners radii and chamfers are still possible, but
certain rules should be observed:

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 Products

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 Thank you
31
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