Advanced Heat-Treating & Plating Services for Powder Metallurgy
Formed from powdered metals like nickel and iron or copper, powdered metal parts cost less, require less machining, and produce less waste than other manufacturing processes.
Allied Sinterings is a leading manufacturer of custom-engineered powdered metal components for small-scale devices and applications. Our expert team is innovative and fully equipped to take on your project. We work directly with you to determine the best heat treatment process and plating material to achieve the desired properties in your powdered metal part.
Our Heat-Treating Services & Plating Services
Heat Treating
Heat-treating powdered metals is a complex process that requires expertise to reach the right level of hardness. It is ideal for components that require wear resistance and elevated toughness, such as sprockets, gears, and turbine hubs. At Allied Sinterings, we offer several types of heat treatment for powdered metal components:
- Quench-and-Temper Treatment: This process involves heating powdered metal components past their critical temperature and then quickly cooling them back to room temperature. Quenching alters the metal microstructure of parts, improving hardness while retaining material enhancements realized during heat treatment.
- Case Hardening: This process involves quenching, but carbon is introduced to the surface of the part. The carbon can be applied in the form of a solid, liquid, or gas source and produces a hard surface layer, called a “case”,\ on top of the part’s softer core.
- Induction Hardening: This process uses induction heating and quenching to harden a specific region of the part. Gears, for instance, may require hardened teeth while maintaining softness in other regions to achieve tight tolerances during machining. Most carbon and alloy steels containing between 0.04% and 0.45% carbon are suitable for induction hardening.
- Steam Heat Treatment: This inexpensive process involves heating steam to form an oxide film on the material surface. Steam heat treatment enhances wear resistance, hardness, and anti-corrosive properties of powdered metal surfaces. Steam is a more effective treatment process compared to bluing treatments.
- Chemical Heat Treatment: This process uses thermal diffusion to alter the mechanical and physical properties of metals and alloys. Chemical heat treatments can achieve a ductile and tough inner core while offering added surface protection. Chemical heat treatment options can include multi-component co-infiltration, sulphurization, nitriding, and carburizing.
Plating
Allied Sinterings also offers robust plating services. Electroplating methods like nickel, chemical, and zinc plating can increase durability and oxidation resistance. This process can also improve the visual appearance of a metal component, commonly serving as an alternative to stainless steel. Plating is ideal for metal parts such as gears, medical device components, and turbine discs. It’s also great for applications that require corrosion resistance, bio-compatibility, or higher strength.
Effective Heat Treatment & Plating of Powdered Metal Parts
Heat Treatment Considerations
There are several factors to consider when heat-treating powdered metal parts:
- Density: Porosity has an inverse relationship with density. The less porosity a material has, the higher its density.
- Alloying Materials: Higher concentrations of alloys like carbon and copper can increase the depth of hardening from heat treatment, gradually decreasing again at a certain point. Nickel alloy offers greater stiffness than copper alloy but can also result in an inhomogeneous austenite metal structure. Our team of expert engineers will be able to help you determine the best material to achieve the properties you need from your part.
- High-Temperature Sintering: While high-temperature sintering delivers enhanced alloying and densification, differences in sintering temperature can result in decreased sensitivity to heat treatment. Using high-temperature sintering with adequate atmosphere reduction can help achieve the desired mechanical properties.
Plating Considerations
Major considerations for plating of powdered metal parts include:
- Part thickness: Powdered metal processes result in a minimum thickness of 0.06 to 0.08 inches. Fixtures can hold fragile parts in place during machining to prevent distortion and improve part integrity.
- Metal powder: The amount of powder needed to reach the desired deposit thickness depends on the part’s surface area, thickness of the deposit, and weight.
- Plating material: Common materials used in electroplating include brass, titanium, silver, nickel, iron, gold, copper, chromium, and cadmium.
Benefits of Our Superior Quality & Expertise
At Allied Sinterings, we’re experts at realizing innovative solutions for powdered metal components. We are known for:
- Being the first in our industry to receive an ISO 9000 certification (we continue to utilize our ISO 9001:2015 certification)
- Offering consistent, rapid, and controlled processes that promote the highest level of quality assurance (even for the smallest and most intricate powdered metal components) and consistently meet design requirements with dimensional and repetitive accuracy
- Producing high-quality results that meet your design specifications
- Realizing significant cost savings
Maintaining a reputation for excellence has helped us build lasting relationships with businesses.
Contact Allied Sinterings for Your Heat Treating & Plating Needs
As an award-winning industry leader, Allied Sinterings delivers deep expertise in plating and heat treating processes. We work alongside design engineers and purchasing agents from small OEMs and Fortune 500 companies in commercial, industrial, consumer, and medical sectors to provide innovative, cost-effective solutions. We provide the parts you need on time, every time.
Whether you’re experienced or new to powder metallurgy, we can guide you through the process. Contact us to speak with a team member or request a sample to get started.
