Conference on Production and Design Limitation and Possibilities for Powder Metallurgy (Metal Technology, January 1945) - Some Experiments on the Effect of Pressure on Metal-powder Compacts - Discussion

Condusions. From the work on aluminum powder, the following general con clusions can bc drawn: I. The physical properties of aluminum compacts, such as density. strength and ductility, increase with increasing pressure, up to the practicable pressure limits. 2. Good properties ill aluminum con pacts can be secured only by the use of high pressures, because it is neccssary to rupture the refractory oxide film on aluminum powder. 3. Considerable softening of the specimens occurs upon sintering. regardlers of the pressure used. General Conclusions 1. For relatively short-time sintering. molding pressure is a very important factor in the final physical properties of the sintered specimens. 2. The effect of pressure. is difierent for each metal, so that few general rules can be drawn that would apply to all metals. 3. In many cases, fur a particular metal powder and sintering temperature there is a critical pressure at which the best physical properties can be obtained. 4. The principles of cold work and in nealing and their effect on grain structure applied to massive metal also holds true for sintered metals. 5. Particle size, at least for electrolytic iron powder, does not have a. great effect on ultimate grain six. DISCUSSION [E. E, Schumacher presiding V.. V. Crane. *—I was particularly impressed with Dr. Kuzmick's work on tin IF not the illustration, particularly the Second one. a very good illustraition of hot preessing. in that