Factors Influencing Performance and Reliability of PM Components Designed for Automotive Applications

Development of new PM materials and processes during the last decade has led to an increased use of PM components in automotive applications. To maintain its competitiveness towards other manufacturing techniques, the PM industry must continue to combine high demands on mechanical properties with maintained or even improved close tolerances of the sintered components in a robust, reliable and cost effective way.

As the PM technology offers a wide selection of alloys that can be processed under a variety of conditions it is of outmost importance to know the influence of each on the both performance and robustness of the PM part to secure a reliable function in the final application.

In this paper the influence of material and processing conditions on dimensional tolerances and reliability are discussed. A case study is presented describing results from manufacturing of belt pulleys in a state-of-the-art hydraulic press. A high performance bonded mix is benchmarked with an elemental mix of the same nominal composition. Improvements in productivity as well as quality of sintered components will also be described.