Modeling Based Materials Development for Additive Manufacturing and New Powder Steels
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Swerea KIMAB AB |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 649 000 |
| Project duration | November 2015 - December 2016 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | The strategic innovation programme for Metallic material |
Purpose and goal
The purpose with the project was to develop and optimise the alloy concept of components produced via powder metallurgy. Traditional alloying concepts developed for conventional cast and forged components, cannot fully take advantage of the powder metallurgy process route. It has been shown in this project how it is possible to optimize the composition of 17-4 PH material. In addition, the hot-isostatic pressing (HIP) makes it possible to control phase transformations. This phenomenon has been demonstrated in this project, and should be further evaluated for other material types.
Expected results and effects
This work has demonstrated how to optimize the nitrogen content in 17-4 PH material. The PM material shows hardness levels that exceed conventional cast and forged materials. It has also been demonstrated in this work how the martensitic phase transformation at hardening is influenced by high isostatic pressure during HIP. Finally, the influence of sintering atmosphere for additive manufactured components has been tested in this project. Some deviation between calculations and experiments were found, and further improvements are possible.
Planned approach and implementation
In the first part of the project a literature survey was made. Special interest was put on thermodynamic and kinetic studies of phase transformations in 17-4 PH. The influence of composition, pressure, and grain size on hardenability of 17-4 PH was evaluated. Then, materials were produced the influence of process parameters were evaluated by hardness measurements and microscopy. Most of the experimental work was made by industry participants.