Performance of conventional and new lubricants used for single compaction of steel PM parts

The role of lubricant during compaction is crucial and is even more important those days with the increased number of PM parts with higher densities and/or challenging ejection conditions. It is for that reason that significant level of efforts were devoted during the last 20 years to the development of environmental friendly PM lubricants that improve both the compaction processing of steel pre-mixes such as the ejection, density, robustness, productivity, surface finish, etc., as well as the performances of the PM parts after sintering. The development of new lubricants for single compaction requires an excellent understanding of the lubrication mechanisms and the behaviour of these new compounds. In this presentation, the effect of different compacting processing parameters such as the pressure, temperature, compaction speed and part aspect ratio on the lubrication behaviour of iron-based powder mixes containing various types of lubricants are reviewed. A particular attention will also be given to the effect of the type and concentration of lubricants on the delubrication behaviour and mechanical properties obtained after sintering.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye