Effects of temperature on the mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V powder compacts prepared by magnetic pulse compaction

The effects of temperature （0-500°C） on the compressive strength,hardness,average relative density,and microstructure of Ti6Al4V powder green compacts prepared by magnetic pulse compaction were investigated.The results show that with increasing heating temperature,the compressive strength first increases and then decreases with the maximum value of 976.74 MPa at 400°C.The average relative density and hardness constantly increase,and their values reach 96.11% and HRA 69.8 at 500°C,respectively.The increase of partial welding is found among the junctions of particles inside the compacts; there is no obvious grain growth inside the compacts within the temperature range.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V powder compacts prepared by magnetic pulse compaction

Ti6Al4V powder compaction was performed by using magnetic pulse compaction in air at 200℃.Effects of process parameters such as voltage,capacitance,discharge times on the microstructure,compressive strength,hardness and relative density of compacts were investigated.The experimental results show that the relative density,hardness and compressive strength of compacted specimens increase with increasing voltage.In addition,the relative density and compressive strength of compacted specimens increase with the augmentation of capacitance in the range investigated.The relative density increases,the hardness firstly increases and then tends to be a fixed value;and the compressive strength firstly increases and then decreases from one to five times compaction.Both values of the hardness and compressive strength reach the maxima of HRA 69.1 and 1 062.31 MPa,at three times compaction,respectively.There are pores in and between particles.

EFFECT OF OXIDE LAYER THICKNESS OVER Al AND Al ALLOY POWDERS ON QUALITY OF THEIR EXPLOSIVE COMPACTS

Observations of microstructure of explosive compacts made of Al or Al-Li alloy powders by atomization with water,nitrogen or ultrasoic Ar gas were carried out under optical and scanning electron microscopes.The rsults indicate that super quality explosive compact can only be obtained by powders of which the thickness of the oxide layer is less than 30 nm.

Densification laws and properties of sintered powder compacts in rotary forging process

In order to obtain high property powder metallurgy products, at present rotary forging process has often been used to further densify the sintered powder compact, but the densification law and property analysis have very rarely been studied, therefore the densification laws of sintered powder compacts being composed of Fe 0.8%C 4.0%Cu 0.2% zinc stearate and formed as cylindrical shape by double action pressing, and then further densified as well in a rotary forging process was studied by orthogonal experiment and regression analysis. The experimental results show that the H / D ratio and the rotary forging force are major factors affecting the density of the sintered powder compacts in the rotary forging process. The effect of the H / D ratio and the rotary forging force on the density were discovered. By determining both the density and the hardness of compacts, it was found that the density distributions show no difference from the hardness distributions and that the gradients of the density and the hardness in the axial direction are larger than those in the radial direction.

Low frequency damping behavior associated with sintering process in Al powder compact

The internal friction behavior of Al green power compact duxing the sintering process was studied as a function of temperature. The internal friction measurements were performed from room temperature to 600 °C. Two typical internal friction peaks were detected corresponding to heating and cooling processes, respectively. The heating peak corresponds to a recrystallization process of deformed Al particles, which is influenced by many extrinsic parameters, such as measuring frequency, strain amplitude, heating rate, power particle size and compacting pressure. However, the intrinsic nature of the peak is originated from the micro-sliding of the weak-bonding interfaces between Al particles and increased dislocation density induced in compressing. The cooling peak with the activation energy of (1.64±0.06) eV is associated with the grain boundary relaxation, which can be interpreted as the viscous sliding of grain boundaries. The similar phenomena are also found in the Mg green powder compact.

Effect of Die Wall Lubrication on Warm Compaction Powder Metallurgy

Die wall lubrication was applied on warm compaction powder metallurgy in hope to reduce the concentration level of the admixed lubricant since lubricant is harmful to the mechanical property of the sintered materials. Iron-based samples were prepared by die wall lubricated warm compaction at 135 ℃ and 175 ℃, using polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) emulsion as die wall lubricant. A compacting pressure of 700 MPa and 550 MPa were used. The admixed lubricant concentration ranging from 0 to 0.6 wt.% was used in this study. Compared with non-die wall lubricated samples, the die wall lubricated samples have higher green densities. Results show that in addition to the decrease in ejection forces, green density of the compacts increased linearly with the decrease in admixed lubricant content. Mechanical property of the sintered compacts increase sharply when the admixed lubricant concentration reduced to 0.125 wt.% or less. Ejection force data indicated that samples with die wall lubrication show lower ejection forces when compared with samples without die wall lubrication. No scoring was observed in all experiments even for samples contain no admixed lubricant. Our results indicated that under experimental condition used in this study, no matter at which compaction pressure, compaction temperature, graphite and lubricant contents in the powder the die wall lubricated warm compaction would give the highest green density and lowest ejection force. It can be concluded that combination of die wall lubrication and warm compaction can provide P/M products with higher density and better quality. It is a feasible way to produce high performance P/M parts if suitable die wall lubrication system was applied.

Densification Mechanism of Warm Compaction and Powder Mixture Designing Rules

By phenomenological analysis of warm compaction, it is found that, compared with the contribution of particle plastical deformation to densification of powder compact,the particle rearrangement is a dominant densification mechanism for powder warm compaction, and the plastical deformation of particles plays an important role in offering accommodating deformation for particle rearrangement and densifying powder compact at the final stage of pressing.In order to attain density gain as high as possible during warm compaction, six rules for designing warm compacting powder mixtures were proposed in detail.

DYNAMIC COMPACTION OF PURE COPPER POWDER USING PULSED MAGNETIC FORCE

The compaction of pure Cu powder was carried out through a series of experiments using dynamic magnetic pulse compaction, and the effects of process parameters, such as discharge energy and compacting direction, on the homogeneity and the compaction density of compacted specimens were presented and discussed. The results indicated that the compaction density of specimens increased with the augment of discharge voltage and time. During unidirectional compaction, there was a density gradient along the loading direction in the compacted specimen, and the minimum compaction density was localized to the center of the bottom of the specimen. The larger the aspect ratio of a powder body, the higher the compaction density of the compacted specimen. And high conductivity drivers were beneficial to the increase of the compaction density. The iterative and the double direction compaction were efficient means to manufacture the homogeneous and high-density powder parts.

THE STRUCTURE CONTROL OF ALUMINUM FOAMS PRODUCED BY POWDER COMPACTED FOAMING PROCESS

A new technique, powder compact foaming process for the production of aluminumfoams has been studied in this article. According to this method, the aluminum pow-der is mixed with a powder foaming agent (TiH_2). Subsequent to mixing, the powderblend is hot compacted to obtain a dense semi--finished product. Upon heating to tem-peratures within the range of the melting point, the foaming agent decomposes to evolvegas and the semi--finished product expands into a porous cellular aluminum. Foamingprocess is the key in this method. Based on experiments, the foaming characteris-tics were mainly analyzed and discussed. Experiments show that the aluminum--foamwith closed pores and a uniform cell structure of high porosity can be obtained usingthis method by adjusting the foaming parameters: the content of foaming agent andfoaming temperature.

Numerical simulation in powder compaction of metallurgy component

Some flow stress models was used to simulate the compaction of a cylindrical specimen.A new flow stress model was presented by analyzing and summarizing the powder compact experiment with different initial densities.Compared with other models,the new model fits better with the experiments.The compaction process of a synchronizer hub was simulated with new model and the synchronizer hub shape was improved by the simulation results.The density distribution was measured and compared with the simulation results of splitting the samples into pieces.The comparison shows that the model could be used to simulate the powder compact process in an efficient and accurate manner.And the results indicate that the density distribution is homogenous after optimization.

Surface Modification Process by Electrical Discharge Machining with Ti Powder Green Compact Electrode

This paper describes a new method of surface modification by Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM). By using ordinary EDM machine tool and kerosene fluid, a hard ceramic layer can be created on the workpiece surface with Ti or other compressed powder electrode in a certain condition. This new revolutionary method is called Electrical Discharge Coating (EDC). The process of EDC begins with electrode wear during EDM,then a kind of hard carbide is created through the thermal and chemical reaction between the worn electrode material and the carbon particle decomposed from kerosene fluid under high temperature. The carbide is piled up on a workpiece quickly and becomes a hard layer of ceramic about 20 μm in several minutes. This paper studies the principle and process of EDC systemically by using Ti powder green compact electrode. In order to obtain a layer of compact ceramic film, it is very important to select proper electric pulse parameters, such as pulse width, pulse interval, peak current. Meantime, the electrode materials and its forming mode will effect the machining surface quality greatly. This paper presents a series of experiment results to study the EDC process by adopt different technology parameters. Experiments and analyses show that a compact TiC ceramic layer can be created on the surface of metal workpiece. The hardness of ceramic layer is more 3 times higher than the base body, and the hardness changes gradiently from surface to base body. The method will have a great future because many materials can be easily added to the electrode and then be coated on the workpiece surface. Gearing the parameters ceramic can be created with different thickness. The switch between deposition and removal process is carried out easily by changing the polarity, thus the gear to the thickness and shape of the composite ceramic layer is carried out easily. This kind of composite ceramic layer will be used to deal with the surface of the cutting tools or molds possibly, in order to lengthen their life. It also can be found wide application in the fields of surface repairing and strengthening of the ship or aircraft.

Analysis of density and mechanical properties of high velocity compacted iron powder

A new method for producing higher density PM parts, high velocity compaction （HVC）, was presented in the paper. Using water atomized pure iron powder without lubricant admixed as the staring material, ring samples were compacted by the technique. Scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and a computer controlled universal testing machine were used to investigate the morphologies and the mechanical properties of samples, respectively. The relationships among the impact velocity, the green density, the sintered density, the bending strength and the tensile strength were discussed, The results show that with increasing impact velocity, the green density and the bending strength increase gradually, so the sintered density does. In addition, the tensile strength of sintered material is improved continuously with the sintered density enhancing. In the study, the sintered density of 7.545 g/cm^3 and the tensile strength of 190 MPa are achieved at the optimal impact velocity of 9.8 m/s.

Low-voltage Electromagnetic Compaction of Metal and Ceramic Powders

Low-voltage electromagnetic compaction （EMC） was used to compact metal powders （Cu） and ceramic powders （TiO2） in the indirect way. It was found that the density of the metal powder parts compacted by low-voltage EMC varied linearly with the discharging voltage in the range investigated. But for ceramic powders, the discharging voltage has an optimal value. Under the value, the density increases as discharging voltage rises, but beyond the value the trend is reverse. The experimental results show that the density of the metal parts decreases gradually along press direction. And the density of the ceramic parts decreases with the advancement of the aspect ratio h/d （height/diameter）. In addition, repetitive compaction can improve the density of both metal and ceramic parts and reduce the effects of aspect ratio on the density.

Comprehensive study on quasi-static and dynamic mechanical properties and wear behavior of Mg–B4C composite compacted at several loading rates through powder metallurgy

The present study aims to fabricate and evaluate the mechanical properties and wear behavior of Mg metal matrix composite,reinforced by 0,1.5,3,5 and 10 vol.%B4C microparticles.Mg−B4C samples were fabricated at 450℃ and under different loading rates by using split Hopkinson bar(SHB),drop hammer(DH)and Instron(QS)at strain rates of 1600,800 and 0.008 s–1,respectively.The mechanical properties including microhardness,quasi-static and dynamic compressive strengths and wear behavior of samples were experimentally investigated.The results show that,the hardness of SHB and DH samples is obtained to be 20.2%and 5.7%higher than that of the QS sample,respectively.The wear rate and wear mass loss of Mg–10.0%B4C samples fabricated by SHB were determined lower than those of the QS sample by nearly 33%and 39%,respectively.The quasi-static compressive strengths of Mg−5.0%B4C are improved by 39%,30%and 29%for the SHB,DH and QS samples,respectively,in comparison with the case of pure Mg.Furthermore,it is discovered that the dynamic compressive strength of samples is 51%−110%higher than their quasi-static value with respect to the B4C content.

Correlation mechanism between force chains and friction mechanism during powder compaction

The relation between friction mechanism and force chains characteristics has not yet been fully studied in the powder metallurgy research area.In this work,a uniaxial compression discrete element model is established based on the compaction process of ferrous powder.Furthermore,the correlation mechanism between force chains and the friction mechanism during powder compaction is investigated.The simulation results reveal a strong correlation between the variation of the friction coefficient and the evolution of force chains.During the powder compaction,the friction coefficient would eventually tend to be stable,a feature which is also closely related to the slip ratio between particles.The side wall friction and the friction between particles would have an important effect on the direction of force chain growth in about one-third of the area near the side wall.The research results provide theoretical guidance for improving the densification process of the powder according to the force chain and friction.

Safety control for powder compaction of initiating explosive device

Powder compaction is one of the most crucial processes in initiating explosive device manufacturing. The quality of powder compaction may influence the performances of product directly. Traditional powder compaction mainly makes use of manual gravitational spiral loading machine or lever loading machine. Potential accident by the strike in powder compaction of initiating explosive device could risk life, property and the environment. To prevent this risk, automatic control system and control strategy can be used to guarantee no strike in pressing process. The scope of this paper is to analyze and review the control strategy for powder compact and discuss the experimental results for the application of the proposed strategy.

Die wall lubricated warm compaction behavior of non-lubricant admixed iron powders

The phenomena of die wall lubricated warm compaction of non-lubricant admixed iron powders were researched, and its mechanism of densification was discussed. Water atomized powder obtained from the Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation was used. With compacting and sintering, compared with cold compaction, the density of warm compacted samples increases by 0.07 - 0. 22 g/cm^3 at the same pressed pressure. The maximum achievable green density of warm compacted samples is 7.12 g/cm^3 at 120℃, and the maximum sintered density is 7.18 g/cm^3 at 80℃. Compared with cold compaction, the ejection force of warm compaction is smaller; the maximum discrep- ancy is about 7 kN. The warm compacted mechanism of densification of iron powders can be obtained： heating the powder contributes to improving plastic deformation of powder particles, and accelerating the mutual filling and rearrangement of powder particles.

Densification simulation of compacted Al powders using multi-particle finite element method

The powder compaction simulations were performed to demonstrate deformation behavior of particles and estimate the effect of different punch speeds and particle diameters on the relative density of powder by a multi-particle finite element model(MPFEM). Individual particle discretized with a finite element mesh allows for a full description of the contact mechanics. In order to verify the reliability of compaction simulation by MPFEM, the compaction tests of porous aluminum with average particle size of 20 μm and 3 μm were performed at different ram speeds of 5, 15, 30 and 60 mm/min by MTS servo-hydraulic tester. The results show that the slow ram speed is of great advantage for powder densification in low compaction force due to sufficient particle rearrangement and compaction force increases with decrease in average particle size of aluminum.

Die wall lubricated warm compaction of iron-based powder metallurgy material

Lubricant is harmful to the mechanical properties of the sintered materials. Die wall lubrication was applied on warm compaction powder metallurgy in the hope of reducing the concentration level of the admixed lubricant. Iron based samples were prepared by die wall lubricated warm compaction at 175 ℃, using a compacting pressure of 550 MPa. Emulsified polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE) was used as die wall lubricant. Admixed lubricant concentration ranging from 0 to 0.5% was tested. Extremely low admixed lubricant contents were used. Results show that in addition to the decrease in ejection forces, the green density of the compacts increases with the decrease of admixed lubricant content until it reaches the maximum at 0.06% of lubricant content, then decreases with the decrease of admixed lubricant content. The mechanical properties of the sintered compacts that contain more than 0.06% admixed lubricant are better than those of the samples that contain lesser lubricant. No scoring was observed in all die wall lubricated experiments.

Simulation of die wall friction's effect on density distribution in metallic powder compaction

A computer simulation procedure for metal powder die compaction was described. Friction behavior of metal powder during cold compaction was simulated by the finite element method. The movement of powder relative to the die wall was taken into consideration by utilizing the shear friction model. Friction between the powder and the rigid die wall leads to inhomogeneous density distribution during the compaction process. The floating die technique and double punch pressing can attain more homogenous compacts than the fixed die technique can do. The results obtained from numerical analysis agree well with the experimental results. Simulation model was built in MSC.Mentat, and MSC.Marc software was used to calculate the powder compaction process.