Effect of powder particle size on green properties and stress wave

In the powder metallurgy (PM) industry, high velocity compaction (HVC) technique is a new way to obtain higher density parts. In this study, three reduced pure iron powders with different particle sizes were pressed by HYP35-2 High Velocity Compaction Machine. A computer controlled universal testing machine was used to measure the bending strength of the green body. The relationships among the particle size, the impact velocity, the green density, the stress wave, the bending strength and the radial springback were discussed. The results show that the powder of -200 mesh is the best option among the three powders for the HVC process. At the identical impact velocity, the green density for the powder of -200 mesh is higher than the other two types of powders, while the bending strength and the radial springback for the powder of -300 mesh is the highest. In addition, the stress waves exhibit similar, pulsed waveforms. As the impact velocity rises up, the duration of the first peak decreases gradually, while that of the stress wave increases slowly. The response time for the powder of -200 mesh is shorter than the other two types of powders. © Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag 2009.