GROWTH OF MnS IN Fe-CU-C-MnS SINTERED STEELS WITH ADMIXED MnS

MnS growth in sintered steels with admixed Fe, Cu, C and MnS has been investigated by SEM and X-ray diffraction, MnS in Fe-Cu-C-MnS sintered steels in which MnS has been admixed is not stable and MnS growth may be ascribed to sintering between MnS particles or reaction between MnS and Fe, Cu, C elements.

Evolution of carbides and carbon content in matrix of an ultra-high carbon sintered steel during heat treatment process

DTA, thermal expansion, XRD, and SEM were used to evaluate the effect of quenching temperature on the mechanical properties and microstructure of a novel sintered steel Fe-6Co-1Ni-5Cr-5Mo-1C. Lattice parameters and the mass fraction of carbon dissolved in the matrix of the steel quenched were investigated. It is discovered that the hardness of the steel increases with quenching temperature in the range of 840-900℃ and remains constant in the range of 900 to 1100℃. It decreases rapidly when the temperature is higher than 1100℃. The mass fraction of carbon dissolved in the matrix of the steel quenched at 840℃ is 0.38, but when the quenching temperature is increased to 1150℃, it increases to 0.98. The carbides formed during sintering are still present at grain boundaries and in the matrix of the steel quenched at low quenching temperatures, such as 840℃. When the quenching temperature is increased to 1150℃, most of the carbides at grain boundaries are dissolved with just a small amount of spherical M23C6 existing in the matrix of the quenched steel.

Factors Influencing the Wear Behavior of Sintered Steels

A review was made on the research progress of wear behavior of sintered steels in recent years. Wear is not an intrinsic property of sintered steels, which is strongly influenced by the wear test conditions. However, many other factors that determine the mechanical properties of sintered steels also affect the wear behavior. Porosity has different effects on the wear of sintered steels depending on the application conditions. Under dry sliding condition, higher porosity results in lower wear resistance. The influence of microstructures on wear resistance is in the order: carbide, martensite, bainite and lamellar pearlite. The wear resistance increases with hardness, but this relationship changes with the porosity and microstructures of sintered steels.

Effect of Varying Carbon Content and Shot Peening upon Fatigue Performance of Prealloyed Sintered Steels

The aim of the work was to find out how the modification of surface treatment and microstructures affect the fatigue characteristics of the considered sintered materials. Two different systems were prepared： as-sintered and shot peened prealloyed sintered （Astaloy CrL based） steels with addition of 0.5% and 0.7% C. Sintering was carried out in laboratory tube furnace in an atmosphere of pure gases 75%N2＋25%H2. The sintering temperature was 1180℃ and sintering time was 60 min. Heating and cooling rates were 10℃/min. Fatigue tests were carried out in symmetric plane bending at stress ratio R=-1 with frequency of about 24 Hz. The presented experimental results showed that prealloyed water-atomised steels, with surface modification, exhibit positive effects on the fatigue failure resistance, and for that reason are suitable for high-performance applications.

Effects of sintering atmosphere on the microstructure and mechanical property of sintered 316L stainless steel

In the present work, N 2, N 2+H 2, Ar and Ar+H 2, were used as the sintering atmosphere of Metal Injection Molded 316L stainless steel respectively. The influences of the sintering atmospheres on C, O, N contents of the sintered specimens, sintered density, grain morphology and mechanical properties were investigated. The results show that C, O, N contents of the sintered specimens can be controlled in permitted low values. The ultimate tensile strength and elongation of the specimen sintered in N 2+H 2 atmosphere are 765 MPa and 32% respectively. Using Ar and Ar+H 2 as the sintering atmosphere, the density of the sintered specimens is 98% of the theoretical density; the pores are uniformly distributed as small spherical shape and the grain size is about 50 μm. The mechanical properties of the specimen, i.e. ultimate tensile strength 630 MPa, yield strength 280 MPa, elongation 52%, HRB 71, are much better than those of the American Metal Powder Industries Federation(MPIF) 35 Standard after being sintered in Ar+H 2.

Effect of Formation of Concentrated Stainless Steel Layer by Thermochemical Reaction and Addition of Hydrocarbon Gas on Sintered Part

As the environmental load has recently increased, the use of sintered stainless steel for automobile parts is increasing to help weight reducing, high performance and external exposure. Although the low priced pre-mixed sintered stainless steel powder parts are used instead of the high priced pre-alloyed powder parts, there have been problems of poor corrosion resistance and high price because the parts are sintered at low temperature due to the change of final part size. This paper describes the alloying process of producing parts having high hardness and corrosion resistance through expanded high concentration chromium on the surface only of sintered steel, which is relatively easier to sinter, using the pack-chromizing technology to improve hardness and corrosion resistance to solve the problem. Notable is the coating where the activated-chromium formed during the pack-chromizing process remains in the coating layer can lower the friction coefficient of the coated layer to up to 0.1. On the one hand, when the hydrocarbon gas was injected so as to promote the chromium-iron mixed carbide formed, the friction coefficient is increased to 0.4 with high hardness values. The thickness of the chromium alloying layer on the specimen can vary at the same temperature and same phase of the coating layer depending on which chromium resource materials (i.e. chromium or chromium-iron mixed powder) is used.

HEAT TREATING OF SINTERED Fe-1.5Mo-0.7C STEELS AND THEIR SLIDING WEAR BEHAVIOR

The influence of heat treating on mechanical properties as well as on the sliding wear behavior of sintered Fe-1.5Mo-0.7C steels was experimentally studied. The microstruc-tures of sintered steels change from upper bainite to martensite, tempered martensite, pearlite and lower bainite depending on the heat treating conditions. Heat treating increases the hardness of sintered steels but high tempering temperature, i.e. 700℃, causes the hardness to be even lower than that of the as-sintered ones. The impact energy of sintered steels increases with increasing tempering temperature and arrives the highest at 700℃, while the steels tempered at 200℃ have the highest transverse rupture strength. Austempering results in fair good overall properties, such as hardness, impact energy, and transverse rupture strength. When the sintered steels were austempered, oil-quenched or tempered below 400? after quenched, the wear coefficient becomes considerably lower. Fair high hardness, such as HV30 】 380, and structures of martensite, tempered martensite or lower bainite are beneficial to lowering the wear coefficient. Under the wear test conditions given, delamination and oxidational wear are the main wear regimes for sintered Fe-1.5Mo-0.7C steels. Fe3O4 in the wear debris is beneficial to lowering wear coefficient.

Investigation of Sintered Maraging Steels

Processing of five grades of sintered maraging steels containing 13% Cr, 9% Ni, 1% Ti and different quantities of Mo, Co is described. Variations of ageing temperatures and ageing holding times had resulted in choosing optimum regime of ageing f T=550℃, T=2.5 h. It allowed to receive mechanical properties of these steels like to them for compact steels; UTS=1200 MPa, EL=5.3%, RA=7%, and Charpy impact =1445 kJ/m2. X-ray analysis had shown phases Fe7Mo6, Fe2Mo in steels containing Co and decreasing of the period 'of or-phase lattice in these steels after ageing.

Plasma Nitriding of Low Alloy Sintered Steels

Fe-3Cr-0.5Mo-0.3C and Fe-3Cr-l.4Mn-0.5Mo-0.367C sintered alloys were plasma nitrided at different temperatures. Characterization was performed by microhardness measurement, optical microscopy, SEM and XRD. Both materials had similar nitriding case properties. 1.4% manganese did not change the as-sintered microstructure considerably. It was observed that monophase compound layer, formed with increasing temperature. Compound layer thickness increased with increasing temperature while nitriding depth increased up to a level and then decreased. Core softening was more pronounced at higher temperature owing to cementite coarsening.

Fabrication and sintering behavior of high-nitrogen nickel-free stainless steels by metal injection molding

High-nitrogen nickel-free stainless steels were fabricated by the metal injection molding technique using high nitrogen alloying powders and a mixture of three polymers as binders.Mixtures of metal powders and binders with various proportions were also investigated, and an optimum powder loading capacity was determined as 64vol%.Intact injection molded compacts were successfully obtained by regulating the processing parameters.The debinding process for molded compacts was optimized with a combination of thermo-gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry analysis.An optimum relative density and nitrogen content of the specimens are obtained at 1360℃,which are 97.8%and 0.79wt%,respectively.

Microstructure and properties of Y_2O_3-doped steel-cemented WC prepared by microwave sintering

Steel-cemented WC was prepared by ball milling, cold compacting and microwave sintering with Fe powder as the matrix, WC as the hard phase and the addition of rare earth Y2O3. The results show that the interface of the WC particles and Fe matrix exhibits excellent wettability and liquidity when the microwave sintering temperature reaches 1,280℃. The density and mechanical properties of the steel bonded WC carbides could be greatly improved, the hard phases become finer and more uniform dispersed owing to the addition of Y2O3. With the increase of the Y2O3 contents, the grain becomes uniform and fine first, and then gathers and grows up. The relative density, microhardness and bending strength all rise first, reaching the maximum values of 97.29 %, HV1024 and 1,267.60 MPa at 0.5 % Y2O3, respectively, and then decrease. Moreover, the relative density and mechanical properties of the steel-cemented WC with nano-Y2O3 are higher than that with micron-Y2O3, which indicates that the effect of nano-Y2O3 is better than that of the micron-Y2O3.

Investigation of Sintering Technology for Composite of Stainless Steel and Partially Stabilized Zirconia

The sintering technology for mixed powdered extrusion rods of different proportions of stainless steel to magnesia partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) was investigated. The effects of some sintering parameters including holding time, atmosphere and protective gas pressure on shrinkage, relative density, microstructure, micro-Vickers hardness and compression strength of sintered samples were mainly researched. The experimental results are as follows: (1) The shrinkage and the relative density of the sintered samples decrease as increasing stainless steel content in the composite, except for the case containing 90 percent of stainless steel; (2) The porosity in PSZ matrix rises as increasing the stainless steel content in the composite; (3) Longer sintering holding time, higher sintering vacuum and gas-pressure sintering process not only enhance the relative density, but also improve microstructure of composite; (4) Micro-Vickers hardness of PSZ matrix decreases as increasing stainless steel content, while that of stainless steel particles in sintered samples varies unnoticeably.

Effect of Additive Cu-10Sn Alloy on Sintering Behavior of Elemental Powders in Composition of 465 Stainless Steel

The addition of Cu-10Sn alloy for developing the high strength 465 maraging stainless steel from elemental powders was studied. The sintering parameters investigated include the sintering temperature, the sintering time, and the mass percent of Cu-10Sn. For vacuum sintering, effective sintering occurs at temperature between 1 250 ℃ and 1 300 ℃. The maximum sintered density was achieved at 1 300 ℃ for 60 min with 3% （in mass percent） Cu- 10Sn alloy. More than 3% （in mass percent） Cu-10Sn content and temperature above 1 300 ℃ caused slumping of the samples. A maximum density of 7.4 g/cm^3 was achieved with 3% （in mass percent） Cu-10Sn content at a sintering temperature of 1 300 ＂C for 60 rain. A maximum ultimate tensile strength （UTS） of 517 MPa was achieved with 3% （in mass percent） Cu-10Sn content. With content higher than 2% （in mass percent） Cu-10Sn, a maximum increase in the density was observed. The fracture morphologies of the sintered samples are also reported.

Sintering Mechanism of Stainless Steel in Powder Injection Molding

Stainless steel samples were made by Powder injection Molding (PIM) process with-400 mesh powder in order to investigate the sintering mechanism in this system and develop the PIM of stainless steels. The process included mixing, injection molding, debin- ding and sintering. Neck growth model was used to analyze the sintering mechanism. The results show that lattice (volume) diffusion is the main mechanism in the sintering process, the products with higher density (>95%) and properties are obtained. At lower temperatures, grain boundary diffusion may play a role in the sintering densification.

Application of a sintered flux in UOE pipe manufacturing

Submerged arc welding is one of the main processes used in the manufacture of UOE welded pipes. It determines directly the quality of the pipes. In the submerged arc welding process, flux plays a very important role ;it not only affects the performance of the weld seam but also has a significant impact on the generation and prevention of weld defects. It is important to use a sintered flux for UOE pipe production. To meet the high-quality requirements on UOE welded pipes, the flux should be chosen such that it can resist high current and high speed, and help the weld achieve low H and O contents. At the same time, storage and management of a flux also require stringent monitoring. Domestic enterprises generally use sintered fluxes for the production of welded pipes.

Sintering behaviors of porous 316L stainless steel fiber felt

Isothermal sintering experiments were performed on the 316 L stainless steel fiber felts with fiber diameters of 8 μm and20 μm. Surface morphologies of the sintered specimens were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and optical microscopy. The results show that the amount of the sintering necks and the relative densities of the fiber felt increase with the increasing of both the sintering temperature and the sintering time. And the activation energies estimated present a decline at high relative densities for both 8 μm and 20 μm fiber felts. Moreover, the sintering densification of the fiber felts is dominated by volume diffusion mechanism at low temperature and relative densities. As more grain boundaries are formed at higher temperature and relative density, grain boundary diffusion will also contribute to the densification of the specimen.

Effect of sinter layer porosity distribution on flow and temperature fields in a sinter cooler

When sinters are filled into the sinter cooler from the sintering machine, it is commonly seen that, due to segregation effects, sinters of larger size usually accumulate closer to the inner wall of the sinter cooler, whereas those of smaller size are to the outer wall. This nonuniform distribution of sinters has led to uneven cooling effect throughout the cooler. This causes the sinters leaving the cooler at a large temperature difference. This undesired temperature difference leads to the deformation and even the destruction of the conveyors. The computational fluid dynamics （CFD） technique was used in the present work to investigate the heat and fluid flow phenomena within the sinter cooler corresponding to the different distribution of sinter layer porosity, which was highly dependent on the arrangement and orientation of sinters within the sinter cooler. It is confirmed that a high mass flow rate within the sinter layer causes a low temperature region and vice versa. The flow fields for vertically reducing porosity distribution and random distribution are almost identical indicating the relative insignificance of convective heat transfer mechanism.

Effects of copper content on microstructure and mechanical properties of open-cell steel foams

The effects of copper content on the microstructural and mechanical properties of steel foams are investigated. Spherical urea granules, used as a water-leachable space holder, were coated with a mixture of iron, ultrafine carbon, and different amounts of copper powders. After the mixture was compacted and the space holder was removed by leaching, a sintering process was performed under an atmosphere of thermally dissociated ammonia. Microstructural evaluations of the cell walls were carried out using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. In addition, compression tests were conducted to investigate the mechanical properties of the manufactured steel foams. The results showed that the total porosity decreases from 77.2% to 71.9% with increasing copper content in the steel foams. In the foams' microstructure, copper islands are mostly distributed in pearlite and intergranular carbide phases are formed in the grain boundaries. When the copper content was increased from 0 to 4 wt%, the elastic modulus, plateau stress, fracture stress, and fracture strain of manufactured steel foams improved 4.5, 6, 6.4, and 2.5 times, respectively.

Physico-chemical properties and microstructure of hydroxyapatite-316L stainless steel biomaterials

Sintering shrinkage, compressive strength, bending strength, metallurgical morphology, microstructure and chemical composition diffusion of hydroxyapatite-316L stainless steel(HA-316L SS) composites were investigated. The results show that the sintering shrinkage of HA-316L SS composites decreases from 27.38% to 8.87% for cylinder sample or from 27.18% to 8.62% for cuboid sample with decreasing the volume ratio of HA to 316L SS, which leads to higher sintering activity of HA compared with that of 316L SS. The compressive strength of HA-316L SS composites changes just like parabolic curve (245.3→126.3→202.8 MPa) with reducing the volume ratio of HA to 316L SS. Bending strength increases from 86.3MPa to 124. 2 MPa with increasing the content of 316L SS. Furthermore, comprehensive mechanical properties of 1.0∶3.0 (volume ratio of HA to 316L SS) composite are optimal with compressive strength and bending strength equal to 202.8 MPa and 124.2 MPa, respectively. The (microstructure) and metallurgical structure vary regularly with the volume ratio of HA to 316L SS. Some chemical reaction takes place at the interface of the composites during sintering.