PROPERTY VARIATION IN SINTERED STEEL - DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS

To reduce dimensional and mechanical property variations in a componen t manufactured from a phosphorus alloyed P/M steel, a design of experi ments approach was used to identify the most important green compact v ariations. Responses evaluated were unnotched Charpy impact energy, to tal dimensional change, and sintered density. The experimental array w as defined using a fractional factorial design, and the variables inve stigated were: phosphorus content; median particle size of Fe3P-powder ; iron powder fines content; added graphite content green density; and sintering temperature. The design of experiments proved powerful in d etecting the most important variables, it pin-pointed graphite and pho sphorus content, and green density variations as being detrimental.