1. Raw material preparation:
First, select suitable metal powder as raw material, usually select high-purity metal powder, and undergo special treatment, such as ball mill, mixing and other operations, to achieve the required physical and chemical properties.
2. Mold design:
Design the corresponding mold according to the shape and size of the required gear. The mold is usually composed of two parts, the upper and lower two molds. An appropriate amount of metal powder can be accommodated between the upper mold and the lower mold.
3. Powder pressing:
Place the pre-prepared metal powder in the mold, and then use pressure to compress the metal powder into a solid state. This step is usually carried out by cold pressing or hot pressing to ensure that the powder particles can be tightly bonded.
4. Sintering treatment:
The pressed metal powder is sent to the sintering furnace for heating treatment. At high temperature, metal powder particles diffuse and combine, thus forming a dense metal structure. During the sintering process, the performance and density of the gear can also be controlled by regulating the heating rate and temperature.
5. Finished product processing:
The sintered gear has been formed, but it usually needs some follow-up treatment to improve its performance. These treatments include heat treatment, such as conditioning, and surface treatment. These treatments can improve the hardness, wear resistance and corrosion resistance of gears.
6. Inspection and quality control:
Finally, through various inspections and tests on finished gears, ensure that they meet the required size and quality standards. Common test methods include hardness test, tensile test, impact test and metallure analysis.
Through the above process steps, powder metallurgy technology can produce high-quality and complex-shaped gear products. This process has the advantages of low cost, high material utilization rate, and can manufacture large-scale products, so it has been widely used in the gear manufacturing industry.
