Search Documents

Seventy-one delegates, representing 74 organizations with a membership in excess of 105,000, attended a conference of technical societies, in Chicago, Apr. 23-25. It was called by Engineering Council, and unanimously adopted a resolution urging Congress to establish a Department of Public Works. This would include the services and bureaus having to do chiefly, with matters of engineering and architecture. Among the bureaus, services, and activities, which logically belong to a Department of Public Works, are the following: Bureau of Public Roads; the United States Reclamation Service; the Alaskan Engineering Commission; the Construction Division of U. S. Army; a Bureau of River, Harbor and Canal work, including such functions as are now exercised by the Mississippi River Commission and the California Debris Commission; a Bureau of Architecture; a Bureau of Surveys, including the Coast and Geodetic Survey; a Bureau of Mines; the Geological Survey; the Forest Service, at least until the same is divorced from the supervision of water powers and road building; and the Bureau of Standards. Later, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted: RESOLVED, That this conference be known as the Engineers, Architects, and Constructors Conference on National Public Works; that it continue in existence until dissolved by its own action and that its officers and committees be empowered to further the organization and development of a National Department of Public Works. RESOLVED, That for the purpose of furthering the passage of a bill for the creation of a National Department of Public Works there be set tip by this Conference an Executive Committee, a Committee on Text of Bill, and a Campaign Committee. The Executive Committee shall have the power to create a Finance Committee and other committees and to add to its own membership or to that of its committees.

Jan 6, 1919

By W. R. Toeplitz

Probably a more descriptive title would be "Much Ado About Nothing." By "nothing," of course, I refer to the porosity which is the main feature of this type of bearing. Porosity has a decided effect on the manufacturing techniques, the structure and physical properties, the oil content, and on the installation and service of oil-retaining porous bronze bearings. A simple curve can be drawn by plotting specific gravity along the abscissa and percentage of porosity by volume on the ordinate. A bronze composition, analyzing 89 Per cent copper, 9.75 Per cent tin, and 1.25 per cent graphite, has an absolute solid specific gravity of 8.5. At this specific gravity, of course, occurs the point of zero porosity. Conversely, at loo per cent porosity, the specific gravity is zero. A similar curve can be drawn for bearings impregnated with oil; the only change being that the specific gravity at loo per cent oil will be 0.89 if we assume that that is the specific gravity of the lubricant. The curve is useful in determining the oil content by volume for any specific gravity. The normal range of oil content for porous bronze bearings of this composition is from 35 to 16 per cent, which is in the specific gravity range of from 5.8 to 7.3. In addition to the amount of porosity, the type of porosity is important. The first consideration here is that the porosity must be intercommunicating. This can be determined by a number of simple tests. The first method, which is very accurate, is to extract the oil in the bearing by cycling

Jan 1, 1945

By W. R. Toeplitz

H. N. Ghenn.*—It has been established that the accuracy obtainable from any precision machine is a function of the wear resistance, maintenance and closeness of fit of the bearings, hence I would like to ask Mr. Toeplitz how these oil-less bearings compare with cast iron or babbitt or similar materials when used on precision machinery. Could these bearings be used, for example, on a grinding machine in which work must be held to a tolerance of plus or minus 0.000025 inch? W. R. TOEPLITZ.—The metal-powder bearings can be held to very close tolerances and are used in place of cast iron and babbitt on precision machinery.

Jan 1, 1945

By R. R. Hoffman

The name L'brush,l as applied to the parts to be briefly considered in this paper, is not clearly descriptive of the design and function of those parts when the usual definition of the word is applied. In a general way, the brushes to be considered here are the parts employed on certain types of electrical equipment to facilitate the transfer of electrical current between a rotating or moving element and a stationary element. These machines are generally motors and generators of both the slip-ring and commutator types, rotary converters, battery charges, etc. Parts that serve a similar purpose on relatively slow or intermittently moving devices such as rheostats, switches, controllers, etc., are generally referred to as contacts. A few special applications involve the use of current-carrying washers, rollers, bushings, etc. As may be inferred, therefore, the design of these brushes and allied parts is dictated by both electrical and mechanical considerations. In most cases these factors are closely interrelated, and unfortunately many of them are not subject to exact scientific or mathematical analysis. Special Advantages Since brushes operating on direct-current machines must carry the load current, resist destructive action from voltage induced in imperfectly compensated armature coils, and in addition act as a bearing material, maintaining intimate contact with the commutator at peripheral speed, which may be as high as 70 miles per hour it is difficult to obtain in one brush the ideal properties necessary for perfect functioning under all operating conditions. The engineer-designer, therefore, when selecting a brush for a specific application, must choose a grade that possesses the characteristics most adequate to meet the conditions involved. In many cases a characteristic that makes a specific grade of brush the ideal selection for one type of machine may be of secondary importance to some other property when the brush is applied on another machine. Frequently different grades of brushes must be applied to the same type of machines when they operate under different or unusual atmospheric conditions. Completely satisfactory brush operation depends on freedom from appreciable sparking, minimum electrical and mechanical losses, negligible commutator or slip-ring wear, uniform film over the commutator or slip ring, quiet operation and good brush life. The ability to produce special structures, and to combine in widely varying proportions materials that are incompatible, through conventional melting and alloying procedures has been the basic contribution of powder metallurgy to the solution of problems involving brushes and allied parts. This is especially true where current-carrying capacity is a major factor, owing to the limitations of all carbon or all graphite brushes in that respect. Metal-graphite Brushes With very few exceptions, friction between moving elements. across which

Jan 1, 1945

By F. R. Hensel

The present paper describes a number of experiments with fine silver, coin silver, silver-cadmium oxide and silver-nickei-copper compacts, prepared by powder metallurgical methods. The test data are of a preliminary nature, since most of the work was exploratory. Fine Silver Eject of Compacting Pressure on Hardness and Density during Cold and Hot Pressing The cold-welding properties of silver have received considerable attention and the welding characteristics are functions of such variables as: cleanliness of metal particles (impurities and adsorbed gases), chemical nobility of particles, plasticity and hardness, particle assortment, particle shape, particle porosity, apparent density, temperature, pressure, time, recrystalliza-tion characteristics. Chemical nobility, plasticity and low temperature of recrystallization after work-hardening are responsible for the excellent low-temperature bonding properties of silver. Several series of compacts were pressed at pressures of 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 70 and 80 tons per square inch, at temperatures of 32°C. (room temperature), l00°, 2000, 300°, 400°, and 450°C. Silver powder of minus 325-mesh, produced by displacing silver from a nitrate solution by means of copper, was used. The density was calcuiated from accurately measured and weighed compacts. The hardness was measured on the Rockwell F scale. The investigation shows that an increase in pressure promotes a higher density and hardness regardless of pressing temperature, up to a temperature of 400° C. The pressure-density curves at various pressing temperatures are shown in Fig. I, the pressure-hardness curves at various pressing temperatures, in Fig. z. The greatest increase in both hardness and density was obtained in the pressure range of 5 to 20 tons per square inch. A compact from each series was annealed at 300°C. in air, for various lengths of time. The hardness values after annealing are shown in Table I. A minimum hardness was obtained after one hour of annealing. No change in density occurred during annealing. The maximum density was obtained at 80 tons per sq. in., and at this pressure the hardness is equal to that of hard-drawn wrought

Jan 1, 1945

By F. R. Hensel

P. R. Kalischer.*—I should like to amplify a little one of the points made by Dr. Hensel, and rather violently disagree with him at the same time. He brought out the point that when the higher forming pressures are used on the green compacts there is a marked decrease in the density as sintered. We found that to be true and, of course, many of you notice that that is true with copper compacts also. But, in my opinion at least, it is not true that the expansion is due to entrapped air. We have vacuum-pressed both silver and copper compacts and obtained almost exactly the same numerical expansion as we secured by pressing in air. The powder, however, that is vacuum-annealed does show a slight decrease in expansion on sintering, but almost the entire increase on expansion can be overcome by very slow rates of heating. And it is our opinion that a majority of the expansion is due to dissolved oxygen in the discrete metal particles themselves rather than to entrapped gases. Another interesting observation that we have made is that often with silver or copper compacts it is desirable to silver solder or braze the compact into some part of a piece of equipment after completing powder metallurgical operations on it. If such a compact is sintered and coined, say a silver compact, given an initial forming pressure of 10 to 15 tons per square inch, and sintered, there is an adequate amount of shrinkage and it can be coined at about 50 or 60 tons per square inch and bring up the density nearly to theoretical. If, then, that compact is silver-soldered into some part of a fixture or a machine, it will expand very beautifully, and the only way that this can be overcome. as far as we know, has been to reanneal after the coining operation at a temperature higher than is to be used in any subsequent operation. In that way, a density very nearly theoretical can be achieved, but the coining operation cannot be carried to the excessively high pressures or expansion and bubbling of the compact will occur again.

Jan 1, 1945

By F. H. Rhines

Page Foreword. By F. N. Rhines............................525 Design Factors for the Metal Forms with Which Powder Metallurgy May Compete. By Fred P. Peters...................... ......527 Discussion..................................530 Powder Metallargy as Applied to Machine Parts. By A. J. LanghamMer........531 Discussion......................... . Pole Pieces for Electric Motors from Iron Powder. By F. V. Lenel...........535 Discussion....................... . Bearings from Metal Powders. By W. R. Toeplitz.................542 Discussion.........................'.........549 Brushes and Allied Powder-metal Parts. By R. R. Hoffman . .............'550 Electrical Contacts Manufactured from Metal Powders. By E. I. Larsen........554 Sintered Magnets. By C. B. Fulton........................557 Friction Articles from Metal Powders. By C. T. Cox..................565 Discussion..................................567 Certain Characteristics of Silver-base Powder Metallurgical Products. By I?. R. Hensel and E. I. Larsen........................ ....569 Discussion............................... . . . . 579 Some Properties of Sintered and Hot-pressed Copper-tin Powder Compacts. By C. G. Goetzel..................................580 Discussion..................................593 The Sintering of Metal Powders—Copper. By C. J. Bier and J. F. O'Keefe......596 Some Experiments on the Effect of Pressure on Metal-powder Compacts. By Jerome F. Kuzmick..................................612 Discussion.................................. 630

Jan 1, 1945

By Fred P. Peters

At first glance this paper may seem unique among those comprising this symposium on designing for powder metallurgy, since it is evidently concerned with everything but Powder metallurgy. This paradox mill be at once resolved, however, when the real Purpose of the symposium meeting is understood—to present factually and objectively the things that can and cannot he done with powder-metallurgy methods, and especially to set forth with brutal frankness the limitations of Powder metallurgy, so that costly over-enthusiasm and misapplication may be prevented. Since much of powder metallurgy's future development (and many of its present disappointments) has been in competition with other and long-established methods of fabricating parts, it is easy to see that its true competitive possibilities in any given case cannot be accurately appraised without rudimentary knowledge of what the competition can do. This paper, therefore, presents a few reminders of things you all know—a background to be kept in mind as you examine the data on each of their specialties given by the authors of the papers that follow. From the standpoint of the design engineer powder metallurgy is often in Competition with one or more of the following: sand casting, die casting, permanent-mold casting, precision investment casting, ma- chined bar stock, screw-machine parts, cold-heading, drop-forging, and stamping and drawing. We will here briefly discuss each of these individually, and set forth so, rough (and therefore dangerous) generalizations about its competitive position, especially with respect to powder metallurgy. Sand Casting Sand-casting of small parts is sometimes an inexpensive method of manufacture, for its raw-material costs (i,e., for gray iron) are the lowest of the various methods and it involves the use of no tools and dies of jewelry quality. its design flexibility— that is, the ability to make complicated, cored and undercut parts in one piece—is about the highest of the competing processes and in this respect it can do many things that are impossible by powder metallurgy. For small castings its production rates may be higher, by using multi-impression molds, than can be achieved with parts of the same size by powder metallurgy. But its labor charges for melting, pouring, patternmaking and molding are comparatively high and the waste it entails in gates and risers is always considerable. Tolerances of sand castings are wide (+1/6 to 1/32 in- per in.) and where precision approaching that of powder metallurgy is required sand castings must be machined to final size, thus increasing their cost. Steel sand castings are more expensive and less precise than iron, and nonferrous the most costly of all.

Jan 1, 1945

By Fred P. Peters

T. D. Yensen.*—As my information is of a negative nature, I think it belongs under this paper. We are particularly interested in magnetic materials and we would like very much on occasions to make use of powder metallurgy. We have tried repeatedly to use powder metallurgy in preparing our nickel alloys but always. with negative results; that is, we cannot get as good magnetic properties by powder metallurgy as we can by starting with a molten material. We have tried by all possible means to make materials' like 50 per cent iron-nickel alloys by powder metallurgy. The compacts can be regularly lorged and rolled but no matter what we do in the way of annealing, the magnetic properties come out very much poorer than if we start with molten material. F. V. Lenel. †—I want to mention one characteristic of articles made from metal powders which distinguishes them from die castings; that is, their wear resistance. Die castings usually are made from zinc or aluminum alloys and a few copper-zinc alloys; all of them are comparatively soft and not very wear resistant. I know of a number of cases where powder metallurgy rather than the die-casting method was used for producing a certain part because higher wear resistance was needed than could be attained in die castings. A, J. LanghammeR.*—The subject of powder metallurgy is somewhat difficult to discuss, and portray, in the time that his been allotted. Most of you would rightly be bored if we went into details. However, I will cite one incident that possibly will help illustrate some of the potentials. Last summer I was in Washington and met Navy officials for the purpose of studying the possibility of making a certain part by powder metallurgy. The part is highly intricate and I happened to remark that the material cost would be high; that is, the cost on one raw material. Promptly a high-ranking Navy officer said: "Mr. Langhammer, if you must pay x dollars a pound for the raw material, but achieve the desired results, the cost of the finished part would still be low."

Jan 1, 1945

By E. I. Larsen

Powder metallurgy has been described as being "as old as the pyramids and yet as new as the latest bomber." While this may be true literally, it has been only in the last Io or 1 5 years that widespread use has been made of this method of fabricating various articles One of the first items fabricated by powder metallurgical methods on a commercial scale was electrical contacts, which were fabricated from metal powders as early as 1920. The reason why these contacts have been made for so many years by powder metallurgy is because the compositions of most of these materials arc such that they could not be made by the conventional methods of melting, casting, rolling, drawing, etc. Classes of Contacts In general, electrical contacts fabricated from metal powders fall into two classes, both from the point of view of the method of fabrication and the components that make up the chemical composition. One class is composed of silver or copper and a refractory metal such as tungsten, molybdenum, or compounds thereof such as carbides. The second class contains a predominant amount of silver and a semi-refractory material such as cadmium oxide, nickel, cobalt, or graphite. Electrical contacts of the first class have been developed primarily as facing materials for heavy-duty circuit-interrupting devices. This class of material unites the high melting point, high boiling point, great resistance to electrical erosion, and the refractory characteristics of molybdenum, tungsten, or their carbides with the high thermal and electrical conductivities and low contact resistance properties of silver or copper. The second class of material is used for lighter duty or specialized applications such as heavy-duty, direct-current aircraft relays. Varieties Electrical contacts fabricated from metal powders are made in a wide variety of compositions, shapes, and sizes. In general, the sizes of electrical contacts fabricated from powders vary from contacts weighing approximately 0.001 oz. up to those weighing 3 to 4 Ib., the contacting face being as small as 0.001 sq. in. up to approximately 6 sq. in. in area. The shapes consist of: sound or rectangular buttons, some of which have radii or bevels on the contacting faces; rings, cups, rectangular bars, the contact face of which may have a radius across the width and/or at one end; and form-pressed pieces of a wide variety such as angles, both acute and obtuse, irregular shapes comprising a radius blended into a flat, which in turn may have steps. The size or shape of the contact is dictated principally by the mechanical design of the manufacturer, who in turn may have problems to be met such as: (I) size, weight, or space limitations; (2) electrical conditions such as blowout coils arc chutes, baffies, gas passages.

Jan 1, 1945

By C. T. Cox

The title of this short paper necessarily implies that friction articles comprise a distinct and unique field and are different from the other metal-powder articles, such as bearings, electrical contacts, and magnets. However, this distinction is rather hard to define in that it is really one of degree and not Of kind. It would appear that the main distinction is that friction are are articles of rather large pressing area. In other words, they are articles in which the area Of the mold in which the metal powder is pressed is relatively large. Other articles made from meta1 powders are generally of rather small area, usually a few square inches, while in friction articles the area ranges up to several hundred square inches. The satisfactory production of meta1-powder friction articles involves many production problems and a large number Of these are accentuated by the large area' Since it is impossible in the short space of this Paper to describe adequately all the problems involved, I have thought it best to merely mention some Of them and to place particular emphasis upon a problem that is common to all metal-powder articles, although it is of greater importance in the making of friction articles. This problem has to do with the effect On the properties of a friction article of small variations in the composition. However, before discussing the problems, it is probably appropriate that some mention be made of the limitations on the use of friction articles. Most engineers are familiar with the general field that can be characterized as constituted by clutch facings and brake linings, and undoubtedly have heard many stories of how metal-powder friction articles have had a service life 10 times as long as nonmetallic friction materials, and of instances where metal-powder friction articles have operated satisfactorily where no other material could be used. These instances should not be regarded as criteria for the assumption that metal-powder friction articles are capable of universal use in the friction field and will always outperform other materials. On the contrary, metal-powder friction articles are unsuitable for numerous applications, either on a performance or on a cost basis. Metal-powder friction articles will not replace wooden block brakes for wagon wheels nor cast-iron brake shoes for railway car wheels, to mention just two obvious examples. Metallic friction articles cannot be used where they must act as heat insulatorsl for they have a relatively high thermal conductivity as compared with asbestos. This is a detriment in some uses, as in certain airplane brakes having hydraulic actuators provided with rubber seals. The metallic friction material readily transfers the heat developed at the braking surface back through the material to the rubber seal and destroys it. Within its limited field, metal-powder friction material has proved satisfactory, but many problems are involved in the Selection of the proper material to use in an application and in the commercial pro-

Jan 1, 1945

By C. T. Cox

W. A. Reich.*—I should like to ask Mr. Cox if he has any information on the change in

Jan 1, 1945

By F. V. Lenel

This discussion is concerned with the method of manufacturing, the design possibilities, and the properties of pole pieces for direct-current electric . motors and generators made from iron powder. In such applications as pole pieces, the electric and magnetic properties of the material are of major importance, therefore they are discussed somewhat more fully. However, the main advantage in making pole pieces from powders lies in the rapid and inexpensive method of manufacturing these pieces, and in the flexibility of design, rather than in their superior electrical properties. As a matter of fact, pole pieces from iron powder have found their principal field of usefulness in small electric motors for controls and similar applications where the highest possible flux density in a given design is not required. Fig. I shows a number of different designs for pole pieces made from iron powder. The steps involved in fabricating them are: (I) briquetting—with each stroke of the briquetting press a complete . pole piece is produced; (2) sintering, and (3) sizing, which is a one-step coining operation in a hand-operated punch press. Conventionally small pole pieces are made from laminated electrical sheet steel stock by punching out the laminations and riveting them together (Fig. 2). The powder method has the advantage of being rapid and inexpensive; also, it makes possible the molding of pole pieces with a round hub, which are better from a design standpoint, as will be shown later. It is difficult to make such round-hubbed pieces from laminated stock. The pole pieces could, of course, be machined from solid stock, but this method is not widely used. The raw material for making pole pieces from powder is straight iron powder without the addition of any alloying ingredients. However, the grade of powder used is of considerable importance, as will be shown later when the influence of the grade of iron powder upon the magnetic properties is discussed. Pole pieces are briquetted in the same way that other iron-powder machine parts are made. Because the pole pieces are flanged—i.e., they have a hub and a wing section—they are made in presses that apply pressure from both ends. For best mechanical and magnetic properties, the density throughout the piece should be even and also should be constant from piece to piece. For that reason a powder of constant compressibility from batch to batch is needed for briquetting pole pieces. One method of obtaining the required magnetic properties is to sinter the pole pieces at temperatures higher than are used for most iron-powder parts. A temperature of 2400°F. and an atmosphere of hydrogen has been found satisfactory. No automatic furnaces of the roller hearth or mesh-belt type have yet been developed for such high temperatures. A box-type furnace heated with Globar heating ele-

Jan 1, 1945

By F. V. Lenel

R. P. Seelig.*—Dr. Lenel is to be congratulated on his presentation of a particularly interesting paper describing the use of the powder metallurgy process for the production of magnetic pole pieces. The only thing that might be added is that we have been successful in producing pole . pieces with a narrow hysteresis curve by the use of considerably lower sintering temperatures than the ones used by Dr. Lenel. It is quite possible that this use of lowe- temperatures has considerably widened the field of commercial application for pole pieces made from metal powders. Development work is currently being done on an a.c. application of a sintered iron part. However, I am in full agreement with Dr. Lenel that if eddy currents are an important factor in the application, we cannot substitute sintered material for laminated sheet-metal structures. Mr. Peters' remarks concerning the limitations of machine parts were well taken. The emphasis of the limitations makes it easier to define clearly what we can do and-what the advantages are of machine parts made of metal powders. When I mention metal-powder machine parts, I mean those of relatively high density, although complete elimination of porosity is not possible at this time. The limitations of the field for this type of parts are largely economical. I believe that Mr. Langhammer has made that point very clear. The following questions are very often asked: How large a part can you make? How close can you hold the dimensions ? How fast can a part be produced? In a majority of the cases, it depends on the cost at which the part can be produced. A large variety of shapes and sizes of a number of materials can be formed. However, the main requirement in this field of endeavor is whether this can be done more economically by powder metallurgy than by other manufacturing methods. As a general indication, it may be stated that densities up to 95 per cent of that of rolled material can now be produced commercially in simpler parts. Tolerances of plus or minus 0.001 in. are common, but where special conditions justify, closer tolerances can be held; we are producing a part of which one dimension is held to 0.0003 inch. Finally, as far as maximum size is concerned, technically this would depend on the capacity of the press and furnace equipment available. Actually, we find that the economical limit of powder-metallurgy machine parts is approximately one pound. From there on, each individual case must he studied on its own merits.

Jan 1, 1945

By A. J. Langhammer

Broadly speaking, it may be said that the engineer has two major responsibilities: One is to recommend the choosing of proper machinery and equipment; the other, to assist in the simplification of design, determination of method, and advise about the most suitable material to be used. The products of powder metallurgy enter broadly into both these fields. The oil-cushion, self-lubricating bearing surface on a machine part makes for better machinery and factory equipment, often proves a life-saver in curing difficulties where bearings are overloaded or inaccessible for lubrication, or on installations that with normal practice constitute a problem entailing frequent repairs. On the other hand, other parts may require low porosity approaching solidity. In the second field, powder metallurgy provides many possibilities for improved products, improved performance, solving of technical problems, saving of weight, quiet operation, higher factors of safety, greater flexibility, attractive economies, and so on. Parts We of the automotive industries are making many powdered-metal war-machine parts, both ferrous and nonferrous, including gears, external and internal; ratchets, both external and internal; levers; pillow blocks; sliding blocks; cams; gibs; hubs with external and internal splines, and similar units. Powdered metals play an important part in our war work, as they did in peacetime in the manufacturing of passenger cars and trucks. The art of powder metallurgy is not a panacea. Although on certain parts such operations as turning, boring, facing, reaming, counterboring, milling, countersinking. chamfering, broaching, hobbing, profiling. trepanning, gear cutting, grinding, etc., can be eliminated, there will always be the need for machine tools. Advantages of Powder Metallurgy Simple machining operations often are eliminated by using powdered metal, and also many other intricate operations, some of which are of the type impossible to perform on the most modern production equipment; for instance, an external spline on a flange hub, where the spline must continue to the flange face and at full depth. Another important feature is that some of the machine parts may require a self-lubricating surface at one or more points; for example, proper lubrication of a sliding splined spool, while ordinarily most digcuit, is accomplished automatically with a self-lubricating powdered-metal bearing. Frequently machine parts are made with physical, mechanical and technological advantages unobtainable from cast or forged metals of similar analysis. Thus powder metallurgy offers the designing engineer broader latitude. Similarly, the engineer may take advantage of powder metallurgy in his teamwork with other departments. Another important advantage in powder metallurgy for machine parts is the relatively short time required for tool-up.

Jan 1, 1945

By A. J. Langhammer

A. J. Langhammer.—That is rather asking a question of the wrong man. However, I will reply to the question from our point of view. There is a considerable amount of iron powder available but the properties vary over a wide range. Powder metallurgy has progressed to the stage where we recognize certain requirements in powdered iron, and what may be a good powdered iron for one application will not necessarily fit the picture for the next one. Further, I believe that there is room for great improvement in the properties of powdered iron. Also, that there is only a limited quantity of powdered iron available having certain specific properties in which we are at the moment interested. F. P. Peters.—May I have a word? With all possible respect to the contributions of the Chrysler Corporation (and they have been tremendous) to the war effort, I think it is easy to get from part of Mr. Langhammer's discussion a false impression of vaster possibilities than really exist. It would be well if in addition to Mr. Langhammer some other manufacturers of machine parts' might tell us in the next few minutes some of the limitations they have found. For example, what is the maximum tensile strength that is being produced in a commercial part in production today? And what is the actual size limitation on bearings that are in operation and are standing up well? We should always bear in mind the fact—and I think Mr. Langhammer will agree with me— that quoting on a particular part does not necessarily mean placing it in production. In many cases it may be several months before the quotation is resolved and we know whether the part can be made. Let us open up this thing for a little free-for-all discussion of some of the ceilings that do exist in the design of machine parts made by powder metallurgy. The ceiling is not unlimited, and Mr. Langhsmmer will agree with that, 3 am sure. H. Hendriks.*—I do not think that there is so much limitation in the making of powder metallurgic manufactured parts as mentioned. Last year we had the problem of making dies for a special machine used in the manufacturing of slide fasteners. This part was wearing out very fast. It was very hard to make, it had to be hobbed out of a special steel and it was a difficult thing to manufacture in general. The tolerances were one half of one thousandth of one inch on all dimensions. We submitted this die to a manufacturer of powder-metal parts. He thought that it was impossible, but we were not as skeptical as he was and decided to try it anyway. The Canadian General Electric Carboloy Division, in Toronto, gave us then the design for the dies, which we made to their specifications. When the first part was delivered, we submitted it to our Inspection Department and its check showed that all the tolerances were right on the dot. They delivered I9 parts of exact specification, then they went off the beam; they could not keep to the tolerances. It took them a long time to get back again. We do not know what happened, but the main point I want to' make is that if a problem is attacked in the right may, the dies are made right and corrected as to dimensions found out by experiment, I do not think that there is so much diffculty in making powder-metal parts to close tolerances.

Jan 1, 1945

By C. R. Fulton

The idea of making permanent magnets by sintering is not a new one, but until the introduction of the iron-nickel-aluminum permanent-magnet alloys there was little need for such a process. Permanent-magnet alloys in use up to the time of this development could be forged and machined to the exact size or shape required without too much difficulty. These new Fe-Ni-A1 alloys, which have become known as Alnico in this country, soon became very popular because of their superior magnetic properties, but when they were made by casting they did have some disadvantages when compared with the older type of permanent-magnet steels. Among these disadvantages were the following: 1. It was almost essential that they be cast to size, since they could not be readily forged or machined. The material could be ground but this was quite expensive, particularly for small magnets in large quantities. 2. The material had a large grain size and was mechanically weak. 3. Close tolerances could not be held and on small magnets this meant grinding almost the entire magnet. Because of the brittle nature of the material, there was considerable loss due to chipping and cracking during these grinding operations. 4. Because of its high aluminum content, the molten alloy had a high surface tension. It was difficult to prevent loss of aluminum by oxidation during the melting operation. In view of these difficulties it is not hard to understand why a process for sintering alnico was developed, or why sintered alnico has come into such widespread use in recent years. It might be well to qualify this by saying that it has come into widespread use for small magnets weighing 2 oz. and less, of the type shown on Fig. I. In this size range, sintered alnico has been able to compete in price with cast alnico. Magnets larger in size, of the type shown on Fig. 2, can be made but they do not compare favorably in price with the cast material. An idea of the range of sizes that have been produced is given by Fig. 3, which shows a small magnet weighing 0.006 oz. and a large magnet with a steel insert weighing 4 lb., both made from sintered alnico. Magnets weighing more than 2 oz., however, should not be made from sintered

Jan 1, 1945

By Jerome F. Kuzmick

Many investigations have been made on the effect of the variables of pressure, sintering temperature and sintering time on the physical and microstructural charactcristics of metal-powder compacts. Severa1 such investigations have indicatcd that pressure is the least important of these three factors in an attempt to secure a dense. strong compact by a simple coltl-pressing and sintering procedure. However, it was felt that a further study of the effect of pressure on pressed and sintered metal powder compacts might prove interesting, for the following reasons: In work done in the past on the effect of pressure, temperature. arid time, the, metal-powder compacts were subjected to long sintering periods, and temperatures right up to the melting point of the metal were applied. It was thought that pressure might exert a more profound effect under short-time simtering and within narrower ranges of temperature. such as normally would be applied in large-scale production of metal-powder parts. 2. It was hoped that something further might be learned of the nature of the bond in pressed and sintered metal-powder compacts. 3. It was thought that interesting infor mation concerning the work-hardening effect of pressure on the crystal structure. of sintered metal-powder compacts would be obtained. Procedure Rectangular bars, 2 by 1/2 by 1/4 in. were molded from the following metal powders: Atomizcd till powder, 325-mesh Atomized aluminum powder, 325-mesh Reduced copper powder, 100-mesh Electrolytic iron powder, 100-mesh Atomized 70-30 brass powder, l00-mesh The, till powder was molded at various pressures up to 40 tolls per sq. in. This was the maximum, because at higher molding pressures there was considerable extrusion of tin into the die wall, jamming the die plungers. The tin specimens were not -in tered, as this phase of the work was- done merely to see how much a very sold metal could be compressed. The aluminum powder was compressed at various pressures up to 50 lons per sq in. Higher pressures could not be used because of extrusion into the die wall The compacts were sintered one hour at 000 in pure dry hydrogen. The copper powder was molded at vari-ous pressures up to 96 tons per sq. in. One set was sintered at 750°C., another at 050 C. for one hour in pure dry hydrogen. The electrolytic iron powder was molded at various pressures up to 00 tons per sq. in. and sintered, one set at Soo°C and one set at 1300°C for one hour in pure dry hydrogen. Extra 325-mesh specimens were also prepared to study the effect of reduced particle size on grain structure. The brass powder was molded at various pressures up to 96 tolls per sq. in. and silltered for one hour. one set at 65o°C. and one set at 800°C, in pure dry hydrogeu.

Jan 1, 1945

By Jerome F. Kuzmick

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

Jan 1, 1945

By C. G. Goetzel

Until recently porous bronzes have found many applications for self-lubricating bearings in the automotive, electrical, household appliance and general machine industries. The bulk of an annual production of several million pounds of copper powder had gone into the manufacture of these articles, of which by now more than a billion are in service. However, the war has brought severe curtailment of these bearings because of the scarcity of the two main constituents, copper and tin. The development of substitute materials of equal or superior properties has led to a large-scale replacement by products made from iron powder. In spite of the diminished interest in powdered copper-tin alloys caused by this trend, it was believed worth while to investigate some mechanical properties of these materials as a reference base for substitutes. In addition, experiments using the hot-press method were incorporated to investigate possibilities of saving vital equipment or opening new fields of applications. It must be assumed that by this time the powder metallurgy process of making porous bronzes, a development that found its first industrial applications more than 10 years ago, is well known in engineering. The patent literature and bibliography is volu- minous, most publications referring to porous, self-lubricating bronzes, containing about 10 per cent tin and I to 5 per cent graphite, with porosities in the range of 25 to 35 per cent.l-7 The excellent antifriction properties of these bearings, caused by the uniform impregnation with oil, are dependent on the interconnection of the pores and the uniform distribution of the graphite inclusions. The sintering mechanism of porous bronze, with its structural changes during the transformation of the metal powder into the sintered bearing has been shown in colored photomicrographs by Hall.* Diffusion between copper and tin was found to begin within one minute, when tin-rich transitory phases were formed. After 25 min. a homogeneous matrix of alpha was reached for an alloy containing 9.5 per cent tin and 6 per cent graphite. Price, Williams and Garrand,9 studying certain metal powder combinations in which sintering is accompanied by the cementing action of a liquid phase, including a 90-10 bronze sintered at 925°C., have found that if the treatment is carried out within the liquidus and solidus temperature range of the system, a peculiar process of alternate solution and precipitation occurs. The particles of the major solid constituent are dissolved in the minor liquid phase, but thereafter are reprecipi-tated on certain nuclei, which develop into large grains, usually rounded.

Jan 1, 1945