What Is Sintering?
Sintering is a type of metallurgy that uses metal powder. Naturally occurring since the dawn of time, sintering involves taking the small particles of powder metal and fusing them together at an atomic level to create an incredibly high-density metal material. Although, stainless steel isn’t the only type of metal than can be fabricated through this process, it is the most widely used by metal component and part manufacturers.
How Does Sintering Work?
By using steel powder, manufacturers are able to compact and fuse the atoms together to create a bond that holds much like machined metal. High-temperature powder metal is able to withstand an incredible amount pressure during compaction, utilizing nearly 100% of the initial ingredient, and resulting little to no waste. This is ideal for companies looking to cut costs and manage workflow without relying on traditional stamping, forging, or machining.
During the high temperature process, the powder metal is heated to near melting point in a carefully controlled atmosphere to ensure maximum density. Unlike other processes that often lose material, create inconsistencies in the material, or have an overall material density as low as 82%, sintered metal has the ability to produce a product with theoretical density as high as 94% with nearly zero waste. Operating with this type of system, a steel manufacturing company is able to achieve material efficiency, unique material properties, close tolerances, intricate shapes, and reduced assemblies with higher efficiency.
Current trends in metalworking use sintering to bond and shape materials that have an incredibly high melting point, such as molybdenum and tungsten. Being able to control and make “malleable” such metals has drastically changed metallurgy and created opportunities in other parts of the world that were previously unable to safely control such a dangerous industry.
Advantages of High Temperature Sintering
Some advantages of sintering are enough to cause an entire company to change their production system. The purity of the metal is a primary concern when dealing with a load-bearing component or part that must undergo an extreme amount of pressure. A huge advantage is the ability to control the shape of the piece much more consistently than through other forms of metalworking. Since many firms utilize an engineering program such as AutoCAD, being able to produce a part that closely matches the designed component is of utmost importance. Additionally, the strength of the component is substantially higher due to the purity of the metal and the density of the item. Being able to produce such components, sintering has the added benefit of being one of the only methods able to use tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, osmium, rhenium, and carbon materials to produce products, since other methods are unable to make these elements malleable to the point of production. Sintering has proven to be such a valuable addition to the technological advances of metalworking, that entire divisions of corporations have completely built their products and services around it.
To learn more about sintering and powder metallurgy, check out the links to these sources below.
Wikipedia - Sintering
SSI Sintered - Powder Metal and Stainless Steel Metallurgy Advantages
Sintering is a type of metallurgy that uses metal powder. Naturally occurring since the dawn of time, sintering involves taking the small particles of powder metal and fusing them together at an atomic level to create an incredibly high-density metal material. Although, stainless steel isn’t the only type of metal than can be fabricated through this process, it is the most widely used by metal component and part manufacturers.
How Does Sintering Work?
By using steel powder, manufacturers are able to compact and fuse the atoms together to create a bond that holds much like machined metal. High-temperature powder metal is able to withstand an incredible amount pressure during compaction, utilizing nearly 100% of the initial ingredient, and resulting little to no waste. This is ideal for companies looking to cut costs and manage workflow without relying on traditional stamping, forging, or machining.
During the high temperature process, the powder metal is heated to near melting point in a carefully controlled atmosphere to ensure maximum density. Unlike other processes that often lose material, create inconsistencies in the material, or have an overall material density as low as 82%, sintered metal has the ability to produce a product with theoretical density as high as 94% with nearly zero waste. Operating with this type of system, a steel manufacturing company is able to achieve material efficiency, unique material properties, close tolerances, intricate shapes, and reduced assemblies with higher efficiency.
Current trends in metalworking use sintering to bond and shape materials that have an incredibly high melting point, such as molybdenum and tungsten. Being able to control and make “malleable” such metals has drastically changed metallurgy and created opportunities in other parts of the world that were previously unable to safely control such a dangerous industry.
Advantages of High Temperature Sintering
Some advantages of sintering are enough to cause an entire company to change their production system. The purity of the metal is a primary concern when dealing with a load-bearing component or part that must undergo an extreme amount of pressure. A huge advantage is the ability to control the shape of the piece much more consistently than through other forms of metalworking. Since many firms utilize an engineering program such as AutoCAD, being able to produce a part that closely matches the designed component is of utmost importance. Additionally, the strength of the component is substantially higher due to the purity of the metal and the density of the item. Being able to produce such components, sintering has the added benefit of being one of the only methods able to use tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, osmium, rhenium, and carbon materials to produce products, since other methods are unable to make these elements malleable to the point of production. Sintering has proven to be such a valuable addition to the technological advances of metalworking, that entire divisions of corporations have completely built their products and services around it.
To learn more about sintering and powder metallurgy, check out the links to these sources below.
Wikipedia - Sintering
SSI Sintered - Powder Metal and Stainless Steel Metallurgy Advantages