3. Sintered mechanical parts

Mechanical parts represent by far the largest tonnage of powder metallurgy production.

One day, it may be overtaken by the production of ingots and blanks for large parts.

The manufacture of mechanical parts generates sales similar to those of the tungsten industry, which includes the hard metals industry.

The development of powder metallurgy has not been particularly rapid, although the costs of the basic operations - pressing, sintering and sizing - are low. This is due to certain restrictions on shapes and the cost of tooling, which limit this industry to fairly large production runs.

A few years ago, development was also limited by the low mechanical properties obtained. This is no longer true, but there are still some difficulties in achieving high mechanical properties and dimensional...