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A fundamentally North American guide
no US ness Straws in a chilly wind LASTYEARwill probably be seen as "the year the recovery didn't happen" in traditional heavy industry. But judging by the tone of publicity emanating from Messe DCisseldorf, which in June will host GIFA, the global fair for foundry technology, this year could end up in the same basket.
With iron, steel and temper mills facing severe difficulties, slow business among the most important users - automotive and machine construction - saw deliveries to the auto sector drop by 7.4 per cent in the first quarter, while sales to the
machine construction sector fell by 16.~ per cent. Whether things will get better for the foundry folks this year is anyone's guess, but it's certainly true that PM companies will be looking to promote their own technology, especially in the automotive sector.
NEW BOOKS A fundamentally North American guide Fundamentals of Powder Metallurgy Authors: LannyPease and William G. West. Published by MPIF, Princeton, 2002. 452 pages. $75 THETITLEof this book as a fundamental treatise on PM is a little misleading. True the first 5o pages reviews the whole spectrum of the technology in terms of the multivarious PM products on offer today. But from then on its focus is very much on structural PM parts, and the final third of the book is devoted entirely to case histories of MPIF award winners, a brief history of PM and a genealogy of PM producers all North American.
As a book reviewing the practicalities of PM the book has considerable merit. It is after all written by two notable North American PM practitioners and in an easy to read "hands-on" style. They guide us through what they call the "visual basics" of PM with quick tours of powder production technologies, followed by more comprehensive chapters on powder properties, compaction, and sintering "as seen through the eyes of a metallurgist". Chapters on repressing, secondary machining, heat treatment, surface finishing operations are included as are sections on PM standards, and quality assurance. A chapter on "other PM forming methods" usefully reviews the
myriad of powde consolidation processes available commercially or still under development. This is a commendable effort very useful referE tool, but the a[m~ focus on North American PM technology and the use of imperial rather than metric units of measurement (or a combination of the two) will probably not appeal too greatly to an international readership.
Mapping the way for others to follow International Atlas of PM Microstructures Authors: P. Beiss. K. Dalai, R. Peters. Published by MPIF, 2002. 191 pages. $~75 WHILSTstandard metailography can be used for the metallographic preparation of PM materials, special care is needed to preserve and characterise any true porosity and/or defects in the sintered structure. Poor metaliographic preparation can lead to errors such as phase tear-out or rounding of pores. If metailography is used as part of a quality system to control pore size, pore shape, pore spacing and grain size, then a large number of images will need to be prepared for the various PM materials in production. In 1986 Winfried Huppmann and Kirit Daial came to the rescue with the first
metal-powder.net
compilation of a 'Metallographic Atlas of Powder Metallurgy'. It quickly became the reference guide not only for the PM industry, but also gave engineers and end users who were not familiar with PM an insight into the special characteristics of metal powders and sintered materials. Sixteen years later an updated 'International Atlas' has been produced by Dalai and two new authors Professor Paul Beiss and Renate Peters. They have succeeded in not only updating the previous atlas in terms of new powders and new sintered materials, for example sinter-hardened steels and MIM parts, but have added non-ferrous alloys made by spray forming and extrusion. A completely new and important section is on "Defects on Materials and
Components". This includes impurities and their origins in powders and finished parts, and defects such as cracks created during compaction or ejection of co Defects creat~ ing sintering I tering, decarl: sation, porosi ty) and steam treatment are also included. Finally, they have pro duced a full-colour section for enhanced phase control of the microstructures different PM materials and hardmeta[ coatings. An expensive but indispensable reference tool for PM companies.
May 20o3 ~
t-t-
With iron, steel and temper mills facing severe difficulties, slow business among the most important users - automotive and machine construction - saw deliveries to the auto sector drop by 7.4 per cent in the first quarter, while sales to the
machine construction sector fell by 16.~ per cent. Whether things will get better for the foundry folks this year is anyone's guess, but it's certainly true that PM companies will be looking to promote their own technology, especially in the automotive sector.
NEW BOOKS A fundamentally North American guide Fundamentals of Powder Metallurgy Authors: LannyPease and William G. West. Published by MPIF, Princeton, 2002. 452 pages. $75 THETITLEof this book as a fundamental treatise on PM is a little misleading. True the first 5o pages reviews the whole spectrum of the technology in terms of the multivarious PM products on offer today. But from then on its focus is very much on structural PM parts, and the final third of the book is devoted entirely to case histories of MPIF award winners, a brief history of PM and a genealogy of PM producers all North American.
As a book reviewing the practicalities of PM the book has considerable merit. It is after all written by two notable North American PM practitioners and in an easy to read "hands-on" style. They guide us through what they call the "visual basics" of PM with quick tours of powder production technologies, followed by more comprehensive chapters on powder properties, compaction, and sintering "as seen through the eyes of a metallurgist". Chapters on repressing, secondary machining, heat treatment, surface finishing operations are included as are sections on PM standards, and quality assurance. A chapter on "other PM forming methods" usefully reviews the
myriad of powde consolidation processes available commercially or still under development. This is a commendable effort very useful referE tool, but the a[m~ focus on North American PM technology and the use of imperial rather than metric units of measurement (or a combination of the two) will probably not appeal too greatly to an international readership.
Mapping the way for others to follow International Atlas of PM Microstructures Authors: P. Beiss. K. Dalai, R. Peters. Published by MPIF, 2002. 191 pages. $~75 WHILSTstandard metailography can be used for the metallographic preparation of PM materials, special care is needed to preserve and characterise any true porosity and/or defects in the sintered structure. Poor metaliographic preparation can lead to errors such as phase tear-out or rounding of pores. If metailography is used as part of a quality system to control pore size, pore shape, pore spacing and grain size, then a large number of images will need to be prepared for the various PM materials in production. In 1986 Winfried Huppmann and Kirit Daial came to the rescue with the first
metal-powder.net
compilation of a 'Metallographic Atlas of Powder Metallurgy'. It quickly became the reference guide not only for the PM industry, but also gave engineers and end users who were not familiar with PM an insight into the special characteristics of metal powders and sintered materials. Sixteen years later an updated 'International Atlas' has been produced by Dalai and two new authors Professor Paul Beiss and Renate Peters. They have succeeded in not only updating the previous atlas in terms of new powders and new sintered materials, for example sinter-hardened steels and MIM parts, but have added non-ferrous alloys made by spray forming and extrusion. A completely new and important section is on "Defects on Materials and
Components". This includes impurities and their origins in powders and finished parts, and defects such as cracks created during compaction or ejection of co Defects creat~ ing sintering I tering, decarl: sation, porosi ty) and steam treatment are also included. Finally, they have pro duced a full-colour section for enhanced phase control of the microstructures different PM materials and hardmeta[ coatings. An expensive but indispensable reference tool for PM companies.
May 20o3 ~
t-t-