1. Features and benefits of powder metallurgy

Figure 1 shows a number of production processes used industrially. They will be studied in detail later.

Table 1 illustrates the classic powder metallurgy process (cold pressing and sintering), using the example of bronze self-lubricating bearings. This process, which is by far the most important in terms of tonnage, is an original way of moving from metal powder to ready-to-use parts or components in just a few operations. It can be compared with all the usual processes for shaping objects from liquid metal (molding) or semi-finished products (forming, machining). Among the other processes (hot sintering-compression) shown in figure 1 ,...