Abstract
The annual growth rate of P/M parts weight per vehicle in Japan has been held steadily 6% during the past decade, while the sales of P/M parts for automobiles fell in 1993 for the first time over the three decades. The P/M industry in Japan, as well as other metal forming industries, is faced with the recession of domestic market and the increase of overseas manufacturing.
In this paper, the status of Japanese P/M industry is reviewed. The technical, management and information problems are pointed out and several tentative solutions are proposed from user's point of view. These solutions are; (1)promoting studies on new powder and new process for drastic cost-reduction, (2)collaborating with several P/M companies in order to both overcome technical difficulties and shorten development period, (3)enlarging standardization and propagating the integrated P/M technical knowledge to automotive designers for digging out new P/M applications. Future prospects of ferrous P/M and advanced P/M in the vehicle is also mentioned in brief.
