The present invention concerns the field of powder metallurgy and components which can be manufactured by metal powders. Such components may be as engine components. Background

In industries the use of metal products manufacturing by compaction and sintering metal powder compositions is becoming increasingly widespread. A number of different products of varying shape and thickness are being produced and the quality requirements are continuously raised at the same time as it is desired to reduce the cost. As net shape components, or near net shape components requiring a minimum of machining in order to reach finished shape, are obtained by press and sintering of iron powder compositions in combination with a high degree of material utilisation, this technique has a great

advantage over conventional techniques for forming metal parts such as moulding or machining from bar stock or forgings. US2009/0162241 describes a metal powder useful for manufacturing gears.

For many applications, a high wear resistance and hardness of the final product is desired. These properties are often difficult to combine with yet another desirable property, i.e. ductility, and there is a need in the industry to have access to easily produced components which will exhibit the same, or similar, mechanical properties as components made from wrought or cast iron.

There is also a desire to keep costs as low as possible while maintaining the above beneficial properties.

Summary of the invention The present invention provides a material which can be used to manufacture components which exhibit high strength and high wear resistance, at the same time possessing reasonable ductility. The material also has cost advantages compared to other potential metal powder solutions.

The invention provides an iron based powder composition which achieves desired microstructure/properties and associated sliding wear resistance with reduced content of expensive alloying ingredients such as admixed elemental Ni and Copper.

The constituent ingredients demonstrate sufficient hardenability to achieve martensitic transformation at cooling rates attainable in conventional furnaces thereby leveraging existing installed capacity and deferring capital investment in specialized furnaces. By using the powder according to the invention, it is also possible to avoid the sometimes negative dimensional distortion associated with rapid quenching by oil baths and/or gas pressure quenching. The material shows sufficient formability to achieve a high degree of dimensional accuracy required of net-shape sintered articles. Forming may be performed without supplemental part heating, tool heating, intermediate quenching and thereby avoids the associated operational complexity and cost of warm/hot forming processes.

Detailed description

Figure legends

Figure 1 . Yield strength.

Figure 2. Tensile strength. Figure 3. Elongation.

Figure 4. Microstructure obtained for material consisting of 80% powder A and 20% of powder B.

Figure 5. Principal IRG wear transitions diagram depicting a general wear characterization of sliding lubrication contacts.

Figure 6. Crossed cylinder test setup.

Figure 7. Calculation of linear wear, h, for crossed cylinders contact The present invention provides a powder mixture consisting of iron based powder A and iron based powder B in a ratio between 90:10 and 50:50, wherein powder A contains 1 .5- 2.3wt% or preferably 1 .7-1 .9wt% pre-alloyed Cr, 0-0.35 wt% pre-alloyed Mo, and inevitable impurities, the balance being Fe; powder B contains 2.4-3.6wt% or preferably 2.8-3.2wt% pre-alloyed Cr, 0.30-0.70wt% or preferably 0.45-0.55 wt% pre-alloyed Mo and inevitable impurities, the balance being Fe; the powder mixture further containing 0.4-0.9 wt% carbon, 0.1 -1 .2 wt% lubricant such as Lube E®, Kenolube®, obtainable from

Hoganas AB, Hoganas, Sweden, or waxes derived from the EBS group such as amidewax , solid lubricant such as CaF2, MgSiO3, MnS, M0S2, or WS2, in an amount of 0.1 -1 .5wt%., and inevitable impurities. The solid lubricant is preferably MnS.

Said ratio between iron based powder A and iron based powder B is preferably between 80:20 and 60:40, or between 70:30 and 60:40. Preferably, said ratio is 65:35.

In a further embodiment, the invention provides as method of manufacturing a sintered component comprising the steps of:

a) providing a powder mixture as defined above;

b) placing said mixture in a mold;

c) subjecting said powder in said mold to a pressure between 300 and 1200 or between 400 and 800 or between 600 and 800 MPa at a temperature between 20 °C and 130°C to form a green body;

d) sintering said green body at a temperature of between 1 100 and 1300°C to form a sintered body;

e) cooling said sintered body at a rate above 0.5°C/second to form a sintered component.

Step c) is preferably performed at 75°C.

Step d) and/or e) is preferably performed under an atmosphere with partial oxygen pressure of 10 ^"17 atm, for example in a 90%N ₂ :10%H ₂ atmosphere. The invention further provides a sintered component manufactured by said method. Such a sintered component contains fine Pearlite having a microhardness (mhvO.1 ) of at least 280, or preferably at least 340. Said sintered component may be composed of a fine pearlitic matrix characterized by a high wear resistance into which martensite is dispersed in a range of 20 - 60% percent of the total area of a cross section. Said martensite exhibits a micro Vickers hardness (mhv) of at least 650, or higher, such as 850 to 950 mainly depending on dissolved carbon content.

In one embodiment, the sintered component is a cam lobe. Other applications of interest are sprockets, lobes, gears, e.g. oil pump gears, or any other structural part requiring a combination of wear resistance, Hertzian pressure elongation in combination with good mechanical properties.

Examples Example 1 Powder mixtures consisting of iron based powder A and iron based powder B in different ratios according to table 1 , were prepared. To all mixtures, 0.75 wt% graphite, UF4, 0.6 wt% lubricant Lube E®, and solid lubricant 0.50wt% MnS were added.

Table 1

Each mix was placed in a mould, and compacted at 700MPa via WDC at 75°C to produce test specimens. The test specimens were sintered at 1 120°C for 30 minutes in 90/10 N ₂ H ₂ with cooling at either 0.8°C/second or 2.5°C/second. The specimens were tested for yield strength (YS), ultimate tenslie strength (UTS), and elongation (A%). Results are shown in figures 1 -3. As can be seen from the results the addition of Powder B to Powder A with or without increased cooling rate provide gains in Yield Strength and some decrease of the elongation of the material. Additions of Powder B also showed increased Ultimate tensile strength at the lower cooling rate of 0,8C/s. However, at the higher cooling rate, 2,5C/s, the addition of Powder B did not have any effect on the UTS of the material no matter the amount of Powder B added.

The microstructure obtained for the material 3 consisting of 80% of powder A and 20% of powder B is shown in figure 4. The microstructure consists of a fine pearlitic matrix into which martensitie is dispersed in about 25%. Example 2

A first characterization of wear behavior or sintered steels may focus on wear transitions in sliding lubricated contacts since a majority of structural components in machinery have a function relying on sliding movements. Figure 5 shows a principal IRG wear transition diagram with test velocities used in this example.

The diagram is a very useful tool and a main result of scientific co-operation inside

International Research Group on Wear of Materials (IRG-WOEM) in 1970' supported by OECD, provides a readable example of the IRG wear transition diagram usage in CVT development. Wear testing in this investigation is performed at three sliding velocities, 0.1 (low), 0.5 relatively high) and 2.5 m/s (high) having a standard engine oil at 90°C as lubricant. At 2.5 m/s, the high sliding velocity combined with enough high load is expected to cause a sudden transition from mild/safe wear to severe wear/scuffing. Here, testing is performed by a stepwise in-creasing Hertzian pressure until scuffing occurs. At 0.1 m/s and 0.5 m/s the wear process is expected to intensify gradually with increase in load and to reduce total number of test runs.

Testing was performed at nominal Hertzian pressure at the test start of 500 and 800 MPa at sliding velocities of 0.1 and 0.5 m/s. At 2.5 m/s the testing was performed by gradually increasing loading. The wear testing was done by using a commercial tribometer, a multipurpose friction and wear measuring machine with crossed cylinders test set-up, according to Figure 6. The tribometer applies normal load on the cylinder specimen holder by dead weights/load arm while an AC thyristor controlled motor drives the counter ring. The counter ring is immersed in an oil bath with approx. 25 ml oil and option for heating up to 150°C. A PC controls the test and logs linear displacement in the contact, wear, friction force, and oil temperature. The linear displacement acquired is about three times larger than the linear wear over the wear track, since the displacement transducer is placed not over the test cylinder but on the load arm lever. The logged value is therefore a proportional value and need to be backward calculated based on linear wear h of the cylinder sample at the end of a test run determined by light optical microscope Figure 7.

The results of the performed test runs are listed in Table 2. The reference specimens of cast iron material failed at 1200 MPa in the beginning of the test. At 1 100 MPa, the sliding was considered wear-safe. Sintered specimens experienced safe wear from 900 to 1 100 MPa. Exceeding 1 100 MPa, the COF decreased steadily from 0.1 1 to 0.06-level. The reason for this is likely due to movement of MnS granules from the surface into the lubricating oil, where the granules build a lubricating suspension. MnS acts here as a so called friction modifier.

Table 2. Results of wear testing