Remarkable advantages: multiple characteristics meet the needs of modern manufacturing

"The biggest advantage of powder metallurgy molding technology is that it can ensure the high quality of parts while reducing costs and increasing efficiency." Engineer Wang, the technical director of an auto parts manufacturing enterprise, said in an interview. According to his introduction, the core advantages of this technology are first of all reflected in the extremely high material utilization rate - traditional cutting processing.The waste rate of metal materials often reaches 30% to 50%, while powder metallurgy can increase the material utilization rate to more than 95% through the "near-net forming" process, and some complex parts can even achieve 100% utilization. For high-value metals or rare alloys such as copper and titanium, this advantage can greatly reduce the cost of raw materials for enterprises, and only in the production of automobile engine parts, it can save 15% to 20% of the material expenditure of enterprises.

Secondly, precision molding and complex structure manufacturing capabilities have become technical highlights. Under the trend of miniaturization of electronic equipment, the metal injection molding process (MIM) of powder metallurgy can manufacture complex parts with a minimum wall thickness of 0.2 mm and an accuracy of ±0.05 mm, such as micro-motor rotors, radio frequency connector shells, etc.The person in charge of an electronic component manufacturer revealed that after adopting this technology, the enterprise has saved 80% of the subsequent machining process, the production cycle has been shortened by nearly half, and the consistency error of mass-produced parts has been controlled within 5%, which has significantly improved the stability of the product.

In addition, strong performance controllability and green environmental protection are also its important advantages. By adjusting the composition, sintering temperature and pressure of metal powder, the density, hardness, wear resistance and other properties of the parts can be accurately regulated to meet the needs of different scenarios. For example, turbine disk components in the aerospace field can have excellent high-temperature fatigue resistance through high-temperature alloy powder and hot isostatic sintering process. At the same time, the energy consumption in the production process of this technology is 30% lower than that of traditional forging, and almost no industrial waste is generated, which is in line with the national "dual carbon" target requirements.

Despite the outstanding advantages, there are still some urgent problems that need to be solved in powder metallurgy molding technology. For parts that require extremely high density, powder metallurgy molding still has certain limitations. Professor Li, an expert in a materials research institute, pointed out that affected by the sintering characteristics of powder particles, the density of parts produced by ordinary processes is usually between 85% and 95%, and it is difficult to achieve the density of more than 99% of forged parts, which leads to key structural parts under extreme loads (such as large engineering machinery shafts) Class parts) are restricted in the application.

The high cost of equipment and molds has also become a "stumbling block" for the application of small and medium-sized enterprises.The reporter learned that the price of a set of special molding presses for powder metallurgy is generally more than one million yuan, the cost of customized molds for complex parts can reach hundreds of thousands of yuan, and the mold design cycle is long. The initial investment is too large, and it is difficult for our small factory to bear it. The person in charge of a hardware accessories factory frankly said that if the annual output is less than 100,000 pieces, the cost of using powder metallurgy technology is even higher than that of traditional processing, which limits the popularization of technology in small and medium-sized mass production.

At the same time, the difficulty of powder preparation and process control has also increased the threshold of technical application. The preparation of high-quality metal powder has strict requirements on purity and particle size distribution. For example, titanium alloy powder for aerospace can reach thousands of yuan per kilogram; and small fluctuations in temperature and atmosphere during the sintering process may lead to defects such as deformation and cracking of parts, which requires enterprises to be equipped with professional and technical personnel and precision testing equipment. , further increased the application cost.

In the face of the short board, the industry is seeking breakthroughs through technological innovation. The reporter learned from the industry exhibition that at present, some enterprises have developed the "discharging plasma sintering" technology, which can increase the density of parts to more than 99.5%, and the sintering time can be shortened from the traditional hours to a few minutes; at the same time, the "metal additive manufacturing" technology that combines 3D printing and powder metallurgy It can greatly reduce the cost of complex molds and provide a new path for customized production in small batches.

"With the continuous iteration of technology, the shortcomings of powder metallurgy molding technology will be gradually made up." Professor Li said that in the future, this technology is expected to be in the newBreakthroughs have been made in more fields such as energy battery electrodes, medical implants, high-end knives, etc., and have become an important force for promoting the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. For enterprises, how to balance technical advantages and cost investment according to their own production needs will become the key to choosing to apply this technology.