Alloying Methods and Materials
Alloying methods for PM material range from mixed elemental powders to fully prealloyed steel powders. Conventional premixing utilizes elemental additions of copper, nickel, graphite, etc to produce the final part chemical analysis. Distaloy grades utilize an intermediate low temperature anneal to diffusion bond the alloying elements to the pure iron. ANCORBOND™ processing uses a proprietary polymer to chemically bond the alloying elements to the base iron. The traditional alloying elements used in ferrous PM are nickel, molybdenum, and copper; however, recent advances in powder processing enabled the use of chromium and manganese. Molybdenum prealloyed grades such as Ancorsteel® 85HP offer good powder compressibility with excellent sintered and heat-treated mechanical properties.