SINTERED COMPACTS FROM ALUMINUM CUTTING CHIPS

The energy-intensive operations involved in production and manufacturi ng of aluminium have forced the related industries to give particular attention to energy savings and efficient material utilization. For ma nufacturing structural components from aluminium P/M offers substantia l reduction in material and energy needs, and costs, More efficient is the recent trend to combine P/M technology and reconstitution of meta l cutting chips. Such a combination enables the development of technol ogical solutions for producing aluminium sintered components from mill ed chips. Procedures for processing aluminium sintered materials are d escribed. The sintered aluminium materials are based on the good mecha nical properties and microstructural stability by dispersion hardening . The powders are produced, compacted and sintered into test pieces fo r evaluating the sintered materials. It is found that the proposed P/M processing has its techno-economic merits as compared to the conventi onal processing of aluminium.