Properties of PM Steel Powders Pre-alloyed with Chromium and Molybdenum, Sintered in Conventional Furnaces.

The dominating part of mass produced PM-steels today are sintered in continuous furnaces operating at maximum 1150°C. The alloying elements Cu, Ni, Mo and C are normally used to obtain good material properties. However, environmental concerns and cost might restrict the use of especially Cu and Ni, as additives to PM-steels, in the future. Since many years, Cr-alloyed PM-steels are available as complement to the existing Cu/Ni-alloyed materials. This family of materials has many advantages and the most important are cost, the ability to be recycled and hardened. However, still PM part production of Cr-steels is mainly limited to top performance applications sintered at high temperature. In the present paper focus is put on processing Cr-alloyed PM-steels in furnaces operating at maximum 1150°C. It shows necessary precautions to betaken for the successful sintering of PM-steels alloyed with Cr.