Advanced solutions for material analysis in powder metallurgy

Černický David - Metalco Testing s.r.o. (Czech Republic)

In our presentation, we will look on innovative and efficient solutions for Elemental Analysis, Metallographic preparation, Microstructural Analysis and Hardness Testing of powder metals. We will partly touch also area of additive manufacturing, powder injection moulding process, Particle Size and Shape Analysis, Heat Treatment.
The quality control of the metal powders used for powder metallurgical processes is important to ensure a high-quality end product. A typical example is measuring the carbon content in steel, e.g., as this considerably influences the hardness of the final product.
During the sintering process, unwanted chemical elements like oxygen from air (corrosion) or hydrogen from moisture (hydrogen embrittlement) may degrade the quality of the product so that these should be analysed, too.
Metal parts require thorough testing, for instance after the sintering process. Here high-quality machines for cutting, polishing and etching has to be used for a perfect surface preparation as prerequisite for reliable microstructural analysis.
Automated solutions deliver sample preparation, which is convenient and reproducible. Performed hardness testing of the manufactured metals has to cope with natural porosity of sintered metals to ensure consistent quality of every batch measured.

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