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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.

High performance P/M prototype gears made by high velocity compaction (HVC) and sinter-hardening has been experimentally investigated with respect to mechanical properties. Experiments were conducted on high density sinter-hardened planetary gears made of Astaloy CrM and D. DH-1. The high velocity compacted prototype gears, compacted to a density of 7.5 g/cm3, were compared to reference gears representative for conventional processing routes that leads to densities up to 7.1 g/cm3. As a result of increased density, the high velocity compacted and sinter-hardened planetary gears showed significantly improved hardness and static tooth strength compared with conventionally compacted and hardened planetary gears.

Prototypes available for tests at an early development stage make it possible to reduce the lead-time for introduction of new P/M components for the automotive industry. This is of special importance for parts such as connecting rods, cam lobes and transmission gears etc. Pilot series of prototypes, made of high performing materials, have been warm compacted and evaluated with respect to material properties and robustness. Warm compaction is compared to other manufacturing techniques suited for high performing applications. Aspects of manufacturing and its capabilities are given. Material properties, the shaping ability of warm compaction and the specific demands caused by the operation of the component were taken into consideration at the early stage of design of the prototypes. For the most critical applications, the design of the prototypes has been optimised by Finite Element Analysis.