ON-SITE-GENERATED NONCRYOGENIC NITROGEN-BASED SINTERING ATMOSPHERES

Nitrogen-based atmospheres are now being employed routinely by the pow der-metal industry to sinter parts used in automobiles, electronic goo ds and many household products. Because they compete in the global mar ket, the manufacturers of these components constantly seek to reduce o verall processing costs, including atmosphere cost. Recently, Air Prod ucts has developed several systems to produce sintering atmospheres, f rom nitrogen generated on-site with pressure swing adsorption (PSA) or permeation (membrane) techniques, which are helping to lower costs wh ile maintaining product quality and consistency. This paper describes the results obtained by using these atmospheres to sinter iron and bro nze powder-metal parts.