CA1071438A - Phosphorus steel powder and a method of manufacturing the same - Google Patents

Phosphorus steel powder and a method of manufacturing the same

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Publication number
CA1071438A
CA1071438A CA263,945A CA263945A CA1071438A CA 1071438 A CA1071438 A CA 1071438A CA 263945 A CA263945 A CA 263945A CA 1071438 A CA1071438 A CA 1071438A
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
phosphorus
powder
steel powder
content
ferrophosphorus
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
CA263,945A
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Per F. Lindskog
Jan R. Tengzelius
Lars-Erik Svensson
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Hoganas AB
Original Assignee
Hoganas AB
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Hoganas AB filed Critical Hoganas AB
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA1071438A publication Critical patent/CA1071438A/en
Expired legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • CCHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C22METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
    • C22CALLOYS
    • C22C33/00Making ferrous alloys
    • C22C33/02Making ferrous alloys by powder metallurgy
    • C22C33/0207Using a mixture of prealloyed powders or a master alloy
    • C22C33/0214Using a mixture of prealloyed powders or a master alloy comprising P or a phosphorus compound
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B22CASTING; POWDER METALLURGY
    • B22FWORKING METALLIC POWDER; MANUFACTURE OF ARTICLES FROM METALLIC POWDER; MAKING METALLIC POWDER; APPARATUS OR DEVICES SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR METALLIC POWDER
    • B22F1/00Metallic powder; Treatment of metallic powder, e.g. to facilitate working or to improve properties
    • B22F1/17Metallic particles coated with metal

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
A novel steel powder mixture for use in powder metallurgy is disclosed. Mouldings made from this powder have high toughness and strength. The steel powder employed is substantially phosphorus free and is intimately mixed with a low-temperature-melting ferrophosphorus powder having a phosphorus content of at least 2.8% by weight. The phosphorus content of the mixture is 0.2 to 1.5%. The total content of impurities which are more easily oxidized than the main components at the sintering particle size of 20 um.

Description

1~:97~438 The present invention relates to phosphorus steel powder mixtures to be used in powder metallurgy. In addition to iron and phospho~s these powder mixtures can contain other alloying elements commonly employed in this technique, such as copper, nickel, molybdenum, chromium and carbon.
The use of phosphorus as an alloying element in powder metallurgy has been known since the nineteen forties. Sintered steel alloyed with phosphorus has substantially improved strength characteristics in relation to ~ i non-alloyed sintered steel. Already at an early date mixtures of pure iron powder and ferrophosphorus powder were used in powder metallurgy. However, the ferrophosphorus first used had a composition which made it extremely hard and caused a considerable wearing of the tools. This drawback has been reduced to an acceptable degree by using a ferrophosphorus powder having a lower content of phosphorus and thereby reduced hardness ~see for example Swedish Patent No. 372,293~.
However, sintered articles manufactured by pressing and sintering such steel powder mixtures sometimes have an unacceptable brittleness. This is revealed for example by the fact that a group of sintered test bars made from these mixtures can include bars having extremely reduced mechanical characteristics, especially with regard to impact strength and permanent strain after rupture ~break elongation). Since t~e advantage of phosphorus alloyed sintered steels is high strength in combination with very good strain characteristics, the above brittleness risks are very serious.
This brittleness risk has been found to be present when the ferro-phosphorus is of such composition that there is established a liquid phase at the sintering temperature. At the normally employed sintering temperatures of 1040C and above, this fact provides that phosphorus contents of more than
2.8 % in the ferrophosphorus give a sintered material having an increased brittleness risk. The fact that ferrophosphorus having a high phosphorus content is used in spite of this drawback is dependent on the favourable sintering process which is provided by the liquid phase and the favourable ,~, ~7~43~ ::
distribution of the phosphorus in turn providing for a rapid difusion thereof which is obtained because of the fact that the ferrophosphorus provides for a liquid phase~
ThusJ the object o~ the present in~ention is to solve said problems with regard to the brittleness of sintered steel manufactured from a mixture of iTOn powder and a ferrophosphorus powder having a phosphorus content exceeding 2~8 %. The solution of the problem has proved to reside in the use of a ferrophosphorus powder having a low content of impurities, especially împurities sensitive to oxidation. A further improvement can be obtained if the ferrophosphoxus powder also has a small maximum particle size.
Accordingly, the invention provides a phosphorus steel powder for manufacturing sintered articles having high toughness, consisting of a steel powder substantially free from phosphorus and having good compressibility, which is intimately mixtured with ferrophosphorus powder having a phosphorus content exceeding 2.8 percent by weight in such an amount that the phosphorus content of the mixture is 0.2 to 1.5 %, wherein the total content of impurities which at the sintering temperature, are more easily oxidized than the main components iron and phosphorus does not exceed 4 %, and the ferrophosphvrus powder has a maximum particle size of 20 ~ m.
Thus, a phosphorus steel powdeT according to the invention for manufacturing sintered articles having an extremely small ~endency to brittleness ruptures consists of steel powder substantially free rom phosphorus~ mixed with a phosphorus powder containing in all less than 4 %, preferably less than 3 %, of impurities which, at the sintering temperature, are more easily oxidized than the main components iron and phosphorus.
~Irthermore, the particles of the ferrophosphorus powder shall have a maximum size of 20 ~m, preferably a maximum size of 10 ~m. The phosphorus content of the ferrophosphorus powdar shall exceed 2.8 % and in order to reduce the wearing of the tools the phosphorus content should preferably be less than 17 %~ If the ferrophosphorus powder is manufactured by grinding ~ -2-~ 37~L438 piece goods the phosphorus content should exceed 12 % and shall preferably be between 14 and 16 %~ The phosphorus content of the mixture is from 0.2 to 1.5 %.
In this case there is a great difference between the particle sizes of the powder components in the mixture leading to an especially great risk of segregation and thereby of a discontinuous distribution of the alloying elements, In order to reduce the tendency of the mixture to segregate af~er the mixing operation, 50 - 200 g of a light mineral oil per metric ton of powder can be added during the mixing operation~ Thereby the fine alloying particles are caused to adhere to the coarser iron powder particles. :

~ .
-2a-.

~L~7~L9L3i~3 In order to improve the protection against segregation, the iron-ferrophosphorus mixture is heated, with or without the addition of oil, in a roducing atmosphere to a temperature of between 650 and 900C for a period of 15 minutes to 2 hours. rhereby, the powder is loosely sintered together so that subsequently a cautious disintegration has to be carried out in order to restore the original particle size. rhe powder provided in this way has iron particles with particles of the fine grained ferrophosphorus powder sintered thereto.
The methods described above in order to avoid segregation can be performed on a mixture having an increased content of the phosphorus powder.
rhe concentrate so obtained can be mixed with the iron powder to provide for the desired phosphorus content in the final product.
The critical contents of the impurities appear from the following examples, and from Figures 1 - 4 inclusive, each of which is a graphical representation of a feature of the invention.
Example 1 Three melts of iron-phosphorus including 15.5 - 16.5 % phosphorus and controlled contents of silicon of 0.02, 0.17, 0.75 and 4.81 % and additional impurity contents of ~ 0.01 % were manufactured and were allowed to solidiy. rhereupon, they were ground to a powder from which two size classes were taken out, 0 - 10 ~m and 10 - 40 ~m. These phosphorous powders were mixed with extremely pure iron powder so that the mixtures got a phosphorus content of 0.6 %, whereupon the mixture was compressed to make impact strength test bars without indications of fracture having a size of 55 x 10 z 10 mm. The bars were sintered in cracked ammonia at 1120C for 1 hour. The impact strength was tested at room temperature by means of a Charpy pendulum hammer. rhe result is shown in Figure 1 wherein the impact strength (1) relates to -the mean value including the standard deviation for seven bars.
rrhe curves clearly show the advantage of the phosphorus powder ~ , . ' ~1 ` ~71~31~3 having partly a small particle size and partly a low silicon content. The silicon content should be less than 0.5 %, preferably less than 0.2 %, for giving the impact strength a stable high value. Ilowever, the silicon content should not be too low and should exceed 0.05 %. Preferably it should exceed 0.1 %. ,~
Example 2 Iron-phosphorus alloying powder having aluminium as the only impurity element was manufactured in the same way as in the preceding Example.
Three different contents of aluminium were used: 0.015, 0.03, 0.8 and 4.8 %.
Also powders have two different particle sizes, namely 0 - 10~um and 10 - 40 ,um, were manufactured. The further treatment and the return of the results `~
are the same as according to Example 1, see Figure 2.
The same conclusion concerning the particle size can be drawn from this example as from Example 1. Also, according to this example, the toughness is better when the impurity contents are low. A suitable maximum content of aluminium in the iron-phosphorus-alloying powder is 3 %, preferably 2 %, and a suitahle minimum aluminium content is 0.02 %.
Example 3 The same tests as according to the above Example were conducted with ;~
iron-phosphorus-alloys, this time having manganese as the only impurity element with~a content of 0.01, 0.07, 0.68 and 5.0 %. The phosphorus content varied between 17.2 and 17.5 %. The result appears from Figure 3.
Once more the Example shows the importance of a small particle size of the iron-phosphorus alloying powder. Furthermore, the manganese content should be less than 0.25 %, preferably less ~han 0.15 %, and higher than 0.03 %, preferably higher than 0.05 %.
Example 4 The same tests as according to the above examples were conducted.
The phosphorus con~ent of the iron-phosphorus powders was 16.7 - 17.6 %
while the only impurity element this time was titanium in the amounts of ' 43~

0.01, 0.02, 1.0 and 4.4 %. The result appears from Figure 4.
Also this Example shows, even if not as striking as the previous examples, that the particle size of the iron-phosphol~ls-powder should be low.
Also the content of titanium should be relatively low, less than 3 %, preferably less than 2 %. If the content of titanium is lo~ered too much, the hrittleness phenomenon appears again, for which reason this content should exceed 0.02 %J preferably exceed 0.05 %. rhe following Example shows this fact even more clearly.
Example 5 An iron-phosphorus alloy was manufactured by melting extremely pure raw materials Cthe same as used according to the previous Examples). No artificial impurity elements were added. The alloy was of the following compositio~: 17.4 % P, 0.02 % Si, ~ 0.03 % Al, 0.01 % Mg, 0.01 % Ti, balance Fe. The alloy was crushed, ground and screened to a powder having a particle size partly less than 10 um, partly between 10 - 40 ,um. The iron-phosphorus powder was mixed with the same pure iron powder as according to previous examples to a phosphorus content of 0.6 ~. Impact strength test bars were pressed from the powder mixture, and the bars were sintered in cracked ammonia at 1120C for a period of 1 hour. The impact strength of the sintered bars was tested according to Charpy. ~hen the particle size of the iron-phosphorus powder was less than 10 ,um the mean value of the impact strength ~or seven test bars was 1.6 kpm (15.7 J) and the standard deviation was 0.8 kpm ~7.8 J). The corresponding values for the case of the added iron-phosphorus powder having a particle size between 10 and 40 um were 0.6 kpm C5.9 J) and 0.4 kpm (3.9 J), respectively.
This example evidently shows that the brittleness risk in connection ~ith phosphorous sintered steel manufactured from a mixture of iron-phosphorus powder and iron powder is great when using extremely pure iron-phosphorus material. Therefore, the total content of impurities which are more easily oxidized than iron and phosphorus at the sintering temperature should exceed 0.1 %.

~7143~

Thus~ the present invention represents a solution of the problem of brittleness ruptures sometimes appearing in sintered steel manufactured from a mixture of iron powder and ferrophosphorus powder. The solution resides in the :Eact that the Eerrophosphorus powder shall have a content of impurities oxidizable at the sintering conditions which is as low as possible. The total content of these impurities is 4 % and these limits have been defined for allowing contents of certain, especially sensitive impurities.

, ~,, .

Claims (11)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH. AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:
1. A phosphorus steel powder for manufacturing sintered articles having high toughness, consisting of a steel powder substantially free from phosphorus and having good compressibility, which is intimately mixtured with ferrophosphorus powder having a phosphorus content exceeding 2.8 percent by weight in such an amount that the phosphorus content of the mixture is 0.2 to 1.5 %, wherein the total content of impurities which, at the sintering temperature, are more easily oxidized than the main components iron and phosphorus does not exceed 4 %, and the ferrophosphorus powder has a maximum particle size of 20 um.
2. A phosphorus steel powder as defined in claim 1, wherein the content of impurities which, at the sintering temperature, are more easily oxidized than iron and phosphorus is at least 0.1 %.
3. A phosphorus steel powder as defined in claim 1 or 2, wherein the silicon content is between 0.05 and 0.5 %
4. A phosphorus steel powder as defined in claim 1 or 2, wherein the aluminum content is between 0.02 and 3 %.
5. A phosphorus steel powder as defined in claim 1 or 2, wherein the manganese content is between 0.03 and 0.25 %.
6. A phosphorus steel powder as defined in claim 1 or 2, wherein the titanium content is between 0.02 and 3 %.
7. A phosphorus steel powder as defined in claim 1 or 2, further comprising 0.005 - 0.02 % of a fluent mineral oil for obviating segregation.
8. A phosphorus steel powder as defined in claim 1 or 2, wherein the phosphorus content of the ferrophosphorus powder is less than 17% by weight.
9. A phosphorus steel powder as defined in claim 1 or 2, wherein the ferrophosphorus particles are substantially adhered to the steel powder particles by means of sintering, thereby avoiding segregation.
10. A method of manufacturing a phosphorus steel powder, wherein substantially phosphorus-free steel powder particles of good compressibility are intimately mixed with ferrophosphorus powder particles having a maximum particle size of 20 .gamma.m and a phosphorus content exceeding 2.8% by weight in amounts such that the phosphorus content of the mixture is from 0.2 to 1.5%
by weight, the total content of impurities in said mixture which, at the sintering temperature, are more easily oxidized than the iron and phosphorus not exceeding 4 % by weight, and the ferrophosphorus particles are adhered to the steel powder particles by adding to the powder 0.005 % to 0.02 %
light mineral oil and by loosely sintering the ferrophosphorus particles to the steel powder particles with subsequent cautious disintegration of the sinter cake thus formed.
11. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the ferrophosphorus powder is first mixed with a portion of the steel powder to form a concentrate and the concentrate is subjected to sintering and desintegration, whereupon the concentrate is added to the rest of the steel powder.
CA263,945A 1975-10-24 1976-10-22 Phosphorus steel powder and a method of manufacturing the same Expired CA1071438A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
SE7511915A SE410983B (en) 1975-10-24 1975-10-24 PHOSPHORUS STABLE POWDER AND WAY TO MANUFACTURE THIS

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA1071438A true CA1071438A (en) 1980-02-12

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ID=20325892

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA263,945A Expired CA1071438A (en) 1975-10-24 1976-10-22 Phosphorus steel powder and a method of manufacturing the same

Country Status (10)

Country Link
JP (1) JPS5284106A (en)
AU (1) AU513171B2 (en)
BE (1) BE847545A (en)
CA (1) CA1071438A (en)
DE (1) DE2648261A1 (en)
ES (1) ES452674A1 (en)
FR (1) FR2328778A1 (en)
GB (1) GB1565983A (en)
IT (1) IT1069591B (en)
SE (1) SE410983B (en)

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4115158A (en) * 1977-10-03 1978-09-19 Allegheny Ludlum Industries, Inc. Process for producing soft magnetic material

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2923622A (en) * 1956-06-26 1960-02-02 Nat U S Radiator Corp Powder metallurgy
GB1204548A (en) * 1967-11-03 1970-09-09 Kennecott Copper Corp Ferrous metal product useful as a precipitant and process of manufacturing it
JPS5213162B2 (en) * 1972-04-22 1977-04-12
SE372293B (en) * 1972-05-02 1974-12-16 Hoeganaes Ab

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
SE7511915L (en) 1977-04-25
FR2328778B1 (en) 1981-08-21
AU513171B2 (en) 1980-11-20
FR2328778A1 (en) 1977-05-20
JPS5284106A (en) 1977-07-13
ES452674A1 (en) 1978-06-01
AU1898676A (en) 1978-05-04
BE847545A (en) 1977-02-14
GB1565983A (en) 1980-04-30
DE2648261A1 (en) 1977-04-28
DE2648261C2 (en) 1989-11-09
IT1069591B (en) 1985-03-25
SE410983B (en) 1979-11-19

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