Abstract
An ongoing development of structural materials requires much finer and more complex composition of microstructures than ever, and it must accompany, inevitably, a development of processing methods. P/M technology is a candidate for it with its wide applicability to various materials. However, most of current P/M processing use starting materials of 10 μm or more, which is not sufficient to achieve micron or nano microstructures. In the present study, we used High-Speed Centrifugal Compaction Process (HCP) as a new compacting method of fine powders. In HCP, powders are prepared as slips and compacted under high centrifugal force of about 10,000g. A fine (4 μm) stainless steel (SUS316L) powder was successfully compacted by HCP to a green compact with a packing density of 68%. It sintered at low temperature of 1323 K, consisted of homogeneous and fine grains, and showed high tensile strength of 600 MPa. All these positive results were due to the appropriate use of fine powder.
