PowderMet 2011: the astonishing recovery of North American PM

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PowderMet 2011: the astonishing recovery of North American PM Joseph Capus reports from an upbeat PowderMet and suggests that the confident mood of participants was bolstered by comforting figures from the North American PM market.

T

he confident mood of Jim Trombino (Figure 1) and Mike Lutheran, (Figure 2) respectively executive director/CEO and president of MPIF, set the tone at the opening of PowderMet 2011, the International Conference on Powder Metallurgy and Particulate Materials organized and sponsored by MPIF in collaboration with APMI International. PowderMet 2011, held May 18-21 concurrently with the International Conference on Tungsten, Refractory and Hardmaterials VIII, not forgetting the trade exhibition, at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis hotel, drew an attendance of almost 800, significantly higher than the previous year.

North American PM Industry Report Lutheran presented a summary of the MPIF annual State-of-the-North American PM Industry Report. As he showed, the North American industry made a remarkable rebound in 2010, chiefly powered by the recovery in production of cars and light trucks. Thus iron powder shipments in 2010 soared to 353,121 short tons (320,350 tonnes), (see Table 1), while the PM parts share made up 315,192 short tons (285, 940 tonnes), a 50% increase over 2009 (Figure 3). Since North American light vehicle production climbed just over

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Figure 2. Mike Lutheran, President of MPIF, gave a summary of the state of the North American PM industry at the opening of PowderMet 2011. (Photo credit: Joseph Capus)

Figure 1. Jim Trombino, Executive Director/ CEO of MPIF, welcomed close to 800 attendees at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in San Francisco. (Photo credit: Joseph Capus)

Table 1. North American Metal powder shipments 2009-2010, short tons. (Courtesy MPIF) 2009

2010

Iron & Steel

244,839

353,121

Stainless Steel

4,500 (E)

6,700 (E)

13,239

18,000 (E)

55,000 (E)

55,000 (E)

Copper & Copper Base Aluminum Molybdenum

2,000 (E)

2,000 (E)

Tungsten

4,000 (E)

4,500 (E)

Tungsten Carbide

5,900 (E)

6,000 (E)

Nickel

4,500 (E)

5,000 (E)

Tin (E) estimate

543

700 (E)

334,521 short tons

451,021 short tons

35%, there was evidently some re-stocking of the pipeline, as the estimated PM parts usage per vehicle in North American rose only about 1.5% to 41.6 lb (18.9 kg). Lutheran noted that despite the sharp

increase since the second half of 2009, the North American PM industry had not yet matched the record shipments of 2004. Copper powder shipments also advanced by 36% in 2010 (Figure 4),

0026-0657/11 ©2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Figure 3. North American Iron Powder Shipments 2000-2010, short tons. (Courtesy MPIF)

Figure 4. North American Copper Powder Shipments 2000-2010, short tons. (Courtesy MPIF)

to18,000 short tons (16,330 tonnes), while stainless steel powders jumped almost 50% to an estimated 6,700 short tons (6,080 tonnes). Tin powder and nickel powder shipments rose to an estimated 700 short tons (640 tonnes) and 5,000 short tons (4,500 tonnes), respectively. Shipments of PM tool steels, high alloy, and tungsten powder also registered gains in 2010, while tungsten carbide powders were marginally higher at an estimated 6,000 short tons (5,400 tonnes). Lutheran reported that PM industry production increased worldwide in 2010, with substantial advances in China, South Korea, Brazil, Japan and India. Speaking of the outlook for 2011, Lutheran said that based on results for the first quarter, PM industry executives were optimistic about the business for at least the first half

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of the year. In North America, demand for PM parts in the automotive sector remained firm. PM parts in new engines and six-speed transmissions used substantial amounts of powder. He cited GM and Ford six-speed models that contained 28-34 pounds (13-15 kg.) of PM parts. Overall PM usage in U.S.-made vehicles was expected to gain slightly in 2011 to almost 42 pounds (19 kg.). Other sectors of the industry such as HIP, CIP and MIM also reported expanding business. The opening session concluded with a keynote presentation, titled “Flawless Execution”, that was provided by members of Afterburner Inc., a business consulting firm specializing in strategic and operational planning. The Afterburner team used their military training and experience as fighter pilots to develop and present

a winning strategy for business clients. The multi-media presentation showed how fighter pilots operate in a combat environment and how one could apply these lessons (PlanA BriefA ExecuteA De-briefA Win) in businesses. In one of several management-focused programmes, the Afterburner Team later led a “Rapid Planning Workshop”, in which several of these themes, especially the importance of de-briefing, were explored. At the Industry Recognition luncheon, two new APMI Fellows were inducted: William R. Gasbarre, of Gasbarre Products, Inc., and Graham Schaffer, from University of Queensland, Australia. Twelve industry veterans received the 2011 MPIF Distinguished Service to PM Awards: Animesh Bose (Materials Processing, Inc.), David R. Connelly (Precision Powdered Metal Parts, Inc.), John J. DiCicco (Major Powdered Metal Technologies, Inc.), Ian W, Donaldson (GKN Sinter Metals LLC), Chaman Lall (Metal Powder Products Co.), Louis W. Lherbier (Carpenter Technology Corp.), Timothy J. McCabe (Kinetics Climax, Inc.), Patrick J. McGeehan (Ametek, Inc.), Bernard North (Kennametal, Inc.), Michael L. Rector (Western Sintering Co., Inc.), Candido Ruas (Rio Tinto Metal Powders/QMP), and David L. Schaefer (Cloyes Gear & Products, Inc.). other awards announced included the Howard I. Sanderow Outstanding Technical Paper Award, the Excellence In Metallography Award, and the CPMT/Axel Madsen Conference Grants.

Trade exhibition The exhibition, comprising over 70 booths representing worldwide suppliers of metal and alloy powders, as well as PM products, manufacturing equipment, ancilliary facilities, and also PM-related organizations, was well attended. As noted above, the mood amongst exhibitors was decidedly upbeat, with powder suppliers describing the North American PM and MIM business outlook as ranging from “good” to “brilliant.” Demand for ferrous powders, particularly related to the automotive industry, appears to have almost completely recovered from the recession. Equipment suppliers, such as press manufacturers, reported an improved outlook—although this was taking time to translate into new orders. The MIM sector, which did not

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Figure 5 . A well-attended trade show brought together PM industry suppliers from around the world. (Photo credits: Joseph Capus)

suffer much during the recession, was apparently going “flat-out.” Comments from individual exhibitors fill in some of the detail. Responding to the concern over the rising and volatile prices for PM steel alloy ingredients, Hoeganaes has developed a new manganese steel powder composition that is now commercially available. The company is also in the final stages of a new Advanced Binding Technology for use with grades containing Ferro-phosphorus, and productionscale samples are already available. Rio Tinto Metal Powders (QMP) is experiencing heavy demand for its lower density ATOMET iron powders that have found new applications in the replacement of discontinued sponge iron grades,

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while ATOMET 22 has been developed to match dimensional change properties. AMETEK, Inc., reported that with the revival in the automotive industry demand for stainless steel powders had been recovering. Elsewhere in the stainless/ high-alloy steel sector, Carpenter Powder Products and Erasteel were very positive about business conditions. Carpenter also noted that demand for MIM powders was “going through the roof.” New products for Carpenter included a borated stainless steel powder for nuclear applications. Erasteel’s new atomization tower in Sweden should be in operation before the end of the year, doubling capacity, and initially will be producing powder for sale rather than for in-house manufacture of consolidated products.

Novamet, formerly part of INCO but now owned by Palm International, Nashville, TN, reported that nickel powder supplies had improved dramatically after almost a year-long shortage due to a strike. While the price of nickel has retreated from recent high levels, a return to historical prices was not expected. In other non-ferrous powders, several changes have arisen following the consolidation in the global copper powder sector, with business continuing to revive. GGP Metal Powder, which acquired the former ECKA Granules electrolytic copper plant, reported auto-related applications showing very encouraging results. Unites States Metal Powders, which exited the copper powder business and is now concentrating on aluminium powder production in the U.S. and

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France, reported that demand was very strong. Alpoco, which supplies customized aluminium and alloy powders, commissioned a new alloy powder production unit in November 2010. Producers of magnesium and titanium powders were also very positive. Press and furnace manufacturers, on the other hand, had so far not seen much in the way of new purchases, but were anticipating an improvement as PM part fabricators filled up existing capacity. Gasbarre Products had been expanding by buying up smaller equipment makers.

Technical sessions This report covers selected items from the PowderMet 2011 main conference sessions and special interest programmes, as the writer did not attend either the Tungsten conference or the MPIF Management sessions. As usual, papers concerned with ferrous topics (including stainless steels) outnumbered those dealing with non-ferrous and miscellaneous materials, such as composites. Perhaps surprising was the increase this year in the number of presentations on titanium and titanium alloys, which caught up with the popularity of MIM. These trends are suspected to relate to the concern over the search for lower-cost alternatives to the expensive alloy elements such as molybdenum and nickel now used extensively in low-alloy steel compositions, and the desire to push the development of lightweight materials for transportation and other applications, again in a cost-effective manner. The search for high static and dynamic strength properties in PM steels has increasingly focused on sinter-hardening, which immediately highlights the battle with the high cost of alloying elements. The latter threatens to undermine the attractions of the PM process. Pometon SpA recently joined in the fight with the introduction of its ECOsint series of low-alloy steel powders designed to provide maximum properties after sinter-hardening with an economic combination of alloys. S.Saccarola gave an update on the hardenability and fatigue properties of these products. In the same session, Ian Donaldson (GKN Sinter Metals) discussed the combining of high-density processing and high-temperature sintering to optimize the mechanical and fatigue properties while employing lower-cost chromium and manganese alloys in place of nickel and copper, and Vincent Paris (Rio Tinto Metal

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Powders/QMP) focused on the control (precision) of dimensional change in sinter-hardening. Another type of alloying approach (micro-alloying) was pursued by Chris Schade and Tom Murphy (Hoeganaes) with co-authors from Drexel U. Micro-alloyed niobium and vanadium are employed in wrought steels to refine austenite grain size and can result in improved strength and ductility. In PM carbon steels, it was found that micro-alloying with vanadium was more effective than niobium at higher carbon levels because of its lower solution temperature. Both vanadium and niobium inhibited grain growth leading to higher strength and impact values. It was concluded that vanadium could be used to replace other elements such as nickel and molybdenum according to their relative price levels. Bruce Lindsley (Hoeganaes) and co-authors from Cloyes Gear & Products compared the heat-treated properties of ANCORBOND®FLM with FLN2-4405 processed under production conditions. While the desired microstructure was obtained in induction-hardened sprockets with the manganese-containing steel, mechanical testing of the sprockets showed better performance in the teeth for the nickel-containing FLN2-4405 steel. Nevertheless, it was concluded that ANCORBOND®FLM-4005 was a potential candidate to replace FLN2-4405 steel in this application. Turning to the flood of papers on PM and MIM titanium, the rich variety of options for powder production and processing was sketched in by Rand German. Other presentations got down to specifics of powder production and processing. While titanium and its alloys are attractive for MIM, e.g. in bio-medical applications, most of the available types of powder are unsuited, either because of particle shape or size distribution. Andrew Heidloff and colleagues at Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory described work on a new proto-type closecoupled gas atomizer, designed to produce MIM-quality titanium alloy powder. Due to the high reactivity of molten titanium, extraordinary measures are required to achieve the desired results. The aim of the project is to be able to produce minus 45 micron powder in batches of 5,00010,000 lbs. Susan Abkowitz (Dynamet Technology) reported on her company’s success in producing Ti alloy parts using the blended elemental mix approach. By choosing powder types to suit various

applications, Dynamet has been successful in competing with wrought products. For example, she quoted a missile part, of which over 100,000 had been produced, showing a 70% cost reduction. She saw “a new era for titanium in aerospace with PM technology.” PM titanium could be cost effective with the right alloy, the right part and the right process. MIM titanium implants and components with porous surfaces have been used for a number of years in orthopaedic and dental applications. In recent years, attention has turned to porous titanium foam as a means of modifying the mechanical and bone-integration properties. Gene Kulesha and colleagues at Stryker Orthopaedics authored a paper describing a three-dimensional porous titanium foam coating, Tritanium™, based on a titanium alloy for use in orthopaedics. The process uses a reticulated polymer foam as a sacrificial scaffold, to which a micro-scale coating of titanium is applied. After removal of the polymer, the foam is strengthened by the application of titanium powder and subsequent vacuum sintering. The resulting coating, approximately 1.3 mm thick, has a porosity of about 65% and shows tensile and shear bond strengths of 60 MPa and >38 MPa, respectively. Bone in-growth studies on animal models showed excellent properties. A number of titanium foam studies have been made at the Canadian National Research Council Industrial Materials Institute. This time, Eric Baril and colleagues reversed the process by describing the injection moulding of dense titanium on titanium foam inserts. During moulding, the MIM titanium feedstock partially infiltrates the foam so that after sintering a sound interface is obtained between the foam and the dense titanium.

Proceedings As in previous years, the papers presented at the technical sessions, posters, and special interest programmes (where applicable) will be published as Advances in Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials—2011 and Tungsten, Refractory & Hardmaterials VIII in CD-ROM format and in printed form later in the year. Further information available from the MPIF. www.mpif.org

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