Advanced Processes in Powder Metallurgy

15:30 Debinding and Sintering under advanced atmospheres
Jürgen Blüm, Managing Director, MUT Advanced Heating GmbH

Debinding and Sintering is one of the key steps in powder based manufacturing. Especially in powder metallurgy, when processing reactive metals, clean and controlled atmospheres are key to get as little impurities as possible and to meet highest material properties. To achieve this it is necessary to understand the chemical and physical processes happening during debinding and the thermodynamics of sintering. This will be discussed in general as well as for stainless steel and titanium as these two materials are of big interest and used a lot in additive manufacturing. Furthermore the ISO furnace concept will be explained which combines debinding and sintering in one furnace to reduce the pick-up of impurities and shorten the process time. The quality that can be achieved with this system will be illustrated by some examples.

15:50 Process-integrated component marking in additive manufacturing – a game changer for quality assurance in industry and research
Dr. Ulrich Jahnke, CEO, Additive Marking GmbH

Additive manufacturing of ceramic and metallic components opens up new degrees of freedom in design and functionality, but poses considerable challenges for quality assurance. In particular, the unique identification and traceability of individual components along complex process chains has often been inadequately addressed to date.
The presentation introduces innovative approaches to process-integrated component marking in additive manufacturing and shows how these can act as game changers for quality assurance in industry and research. The presentation uses specific application examples to explain how marking elements can be integrated during the manufacturing process without compromising component properties or functionality.

16:10 Accelerated fatigue testing of PM-HIP tool steel
Leonhard Gertlowski, Academic Researcher, IAPK

Tool steels exhibiting excellent fracture toughness and fatigue resistance are employed in cutting tool applications. Both properties can be significantly improved by powder metallurgy (PM) combined with hot isostatic pressing (HIP) for consolidation. Conventionally, Wöhler tests are used to evaluate fatigue strength, requiring multiple specimens to ensure statistical reliability. In the present study, the available test volume is limited by the size of the HIP capsule. To address this limitation, an accelerated fatigue testing method is proposed that enables the determination of the fatigue limit using a single specimen, thereby significantly reducing material consumption and testing time. The method is validated by comparing fatigue limits of a PM-HIP tool steel obtained from the accelerated approach with those derived from conventional fatigue tests.