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MPIF Member profiles MPIF event About the MPIF |
“Powder metal (PM) offers designers, engineers, and manufacturers multiple process features that lend themselves to the lightweighting effort. Design flexibility with PM components allows part geometries to be unique. Holes in gear hubs or flanges, removal of material where it is not needed, and functionally gradient materials can offer many opportunities to put the right material at the right place in just the right amount,” says Tom Pelletiers, business manager for SCM Metal Products Inc. and its sister companies ACuPowder and Ecka Granules, all located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. “New PM materials continue to be developed by modifying chemical composition or by utilizing composite blends of particles, so that lighter-weight, stronger, and stiffer materials can be designed.”
Demands to lower vehicle weights for passenger cars and commercial trucks are creating new opportunities for powder metal suppliers, he adds, but those applications require new investments in research and development for new materials and techniques.
“Our most recent development program is based around introducing an aluminum-based brazing paste for joining aluminum parts, leveraging our group’s expertise in copper brazing paste,” Pelletiers says. “For many years, Ecka Granules has produced Alumix aluminum powder pre-blends for traditional press and sinter PM manufacturing. These primarily serve the current auto market with components such as CAM caps, transmission components, and variable-valve-timing components. New aluminum pre-mix powder alloy developments with improved properties continue to open new doors to aluminum PM applications.”
Pelletiers adds that SCM, ACuPowder, and Ecka are working on a high-strength (450MPa UTS to 500MPa UTS), temperature-resistant, wrought aluminum alloy that shows good properties above 200°C, and is suitable for more demanding aluminum applications.
Another growth area for SCM and its sister companies has been additive manufacturing. With more companies making equipment to laser sinter or 3D print metals, powder metal suppliers have seen a definite boost, he says.
“Sales and technical support for these items has steadily increased over recent times and is becoming more important. Lightweight, high-strength aluminum alloys should hold the biggest promise, but work also continues with copper for heat sink components and electrical connector development,” Pelletiers says. “Demand is growing on a yearly basis and exceeds 20% per year based on volume.”
SCM Metal Products Inc.
www.scmmetals.com