Abstract
The creation of high quality steel powders greatly contributes to the improvements of sintered components. A new family of low alloy steel powders has been developed to meet the requirements of heavy duty structural components mainly for the automobile industry. Composite-type alloyed steel powders containing 2%Cu or 4%Ni1.5%Cu-0.5%Mo consist of iron particles to which alloying elements are finely diffusion-bonded. The powders attain the homogeneity of sintered microstructures while maintaining the compressibility of a pure iron powder. A prealloyed steel powder containing 1.0%Ni-0.3%Cu-0.2%Mo has been designed to achieve high strength after heat-treating high density sintered compacts. The sintered materials remain soft before heat treatment and are effectively densified by repressing.
