Abstract
Effects of several types of carbon and graphite powders on the compressibility, sinterbility and carburization of the iron-carbon compacts were investigated by studying microstructures, and further mechanical properties of these sintered materials were determined. Carbon powders used in the present study were amorphous carbon such as coals, cokes and carbon blacks together with natural, artificial and kish graphites.
Addition of amorphous carbon powders to iron powder generally led to lower compressibility and carburization than that of graphites. However, material using petroleum coak (green) powder showed good carburization and strength near to those produced using natural graphite powder, and material using kish graphite powder (particle size: 10μm) showed the most superior properties. In conclusion, the refining of carbon or graphite particles improved the properties of sintered materials. This was effective even for the amorphous carbon powders such as smokeless coal and petroleum coke which were usually considered to be poorly reactive.
It was concluded that required properties for the additive carbon powder were high degree of graphi-tization, flaky shape and fine particle size about 10μm.
