Abstract
The alloying of manganese to iron by powder metallurgical method presents some difficulties. Observations are made in this paper on the alloying of manganese to iron on the alloying process of Fe-Mn-C ternary system during sintering. The results obtained were as follows:
1) Alloying structures of iron-manganese are partially obtained by sintering the compacts from mixtures of iron and 10% manganese powder at 1000-1100°C in hydrogen An addition of carbon to these mixtures improves the alloying between iron and manganese ; by adding more than 0.8% carbon to these mixtures, homogeneous structures are obtained at sintering temperature of 1100°C. The degrees of homogenization of alloying were examined by electron probe micro-analyzer.
2) Following three mechanisms are proposed for the sintering of Fe-Mn-C ternary system :
i) Alloying of manganese directly to iron.
ii) Alloying of manganese to iron-carbon alloy.
iii) Alloying of manganese-carbon alloy or manganese carbide to iron (at high carbon content).
In the case of sintering the compacts containing manganese oxide which is not readily reduced, an application of the alloying process (iii) may be effective.
