STUDY OF POWDER METAL PRESS AND SINTER PROCESS AND ITS TOOL WEAR

by Thompson, James Kyle

A new methodology was developed to observe and measure tool wear during the die compaction process. The newly developed method is a non-destructive test using silicon rubber to transcript die surface profiles. Tool wear was observed and measured by recording surface roughness and diameter of the cylindrical die replicas on a surface profiler including weight loss in the die. To validate this procedure, an aluminum alloy powder without lubricant was compacted to examine the effect on die wear. The die materials were machined from several wrought and composite materials. A further dimension to the program was the variance of compaction pressures and lubricants.