from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Powder metallurgy offers a promising approach to produce components with complex near-net-shape geometry after forming and excellent microstructural properties. The process chain consists of powder pressing of a green body, sintering, and sinter forging. However, the stochastic nature of powder combined with process parameter variations introduces uncertainties from the first step that propagate through the process chain and can lead to discrepancies in finished products. As a first step towards tracking and quantifying such uncertainties, this study focuses on modelling powder pressing of two aluminium belt pulley gear geometries. The geometries can be pressed using the same tooling by varying press stroke and display features commonly found in industrial applications. Numerical simulations identify key factors governing density distribution and reveal significant differences between the two geometries. Assessment of different bilateral pressing strategies demonstrates trade-offs in achieving uniform density distributions. These findings provide the foundation for understanding how initial density variations propagate through subsequent process steps and establish the basis for process chain optimization.
Keywords: Powder metallurgy, powder pressing, finite element method© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.