A study on some properties of sintered stainless steel powder compacts with sintering conditions

Sintered specimens for the mechanical and corrosion tests were prepared from 316L, 410L and 434L stainless steel powder compacts with green densities in the range of 6.2∼7.0g/cm3. The experimental variables studied were green density, sintering atmosphere, temperature and time, type of lubricant used and cooling rate after sintering operation. Mechanical properties of green compacts and sintered specimens were evaluated. The corrosion tests were performed by potentiodynamic anodic polarization technique. Mechanical properties were very sensitive to the sintering atmosphere; sintering in dissociated ammonia resulted in the strengthing but embrittlement of sintered 316L, 410L and 434L strainless steel powder compacts. Their corrosion resistance was also decreased. The tensile strength was increased with increases in sintering time and temperature while the decreases in the yield strength were observed. The tensile properties of green compacts were shown to closely related to the green density. Addition of 1% acrawax as a lubricant was appeared to be most effective for the improvement of green strength. (Author)