Thursday, March 22, 2012

No. 466: Successful development of a sintered alloy with the maximum stress value of 700 Mpa (March 22, 2012)

Technology
NTN, one of Japan’s leading precision equipment manufacturers, developed a sintered alloy with the maximum stress value of 700 Mpa that is the best in the industry. The new alloy has about two times higher stress value than the existing mass-produced products and 10-20% higher stress value than sintered alloys under development in other research agencies. By increasing the strength, the company plans to apply the new sintered alloy to power transmission parts for cutting work. NTN acquired Nippon Kagaku Yakin in 2011. By utilizing this company’s technology on precision metal mold and mass production, NTN wishes to put the new alloy into practical use for automotive gear parts by 2014.

As compared with producing a cutting ingot, producing a sintered alloy has two times higher utilization ratio of material of 95-100% and needs 30-50% less energy in manufacturing. However, because pressing down metal powder is needed to produce a sintered alloy, tiny openings are created inside to produce a sintered alloy because pressing down metal powder is needed. These tiny openings deteriorate fatigue characteristics. That is why sintered alloys have not widely been used for power transmission parts that require high strength. 

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