ALLOY STEEL POWDER FOR POWDER METALLURGY

Abstract: This new alloy steel powder consists of W (0.2-2.0 wt.%, pref. 0.2-1.6 wt.%), Ni (0.8-3.0 wt.%, pref. 1.0-2.5 wt.%) and Fe and unavoidable impurities (the residual) Mo or Cu can be added as fourth and fifth components in the amts. Mo 0.1-1.0 wt.%, (pref. 0.2-0.8 wt.%), Cu 0.2-2.0 wt.% (pref. 0.2-1.0 wt.%). However the total amt. of Ni and Cu should lie between 1.0 and 2.5 wt.%. Both Mo and Cu can be added together as the fourth and fifth components in the amts. Mo 0.1-1.0 wt.% (pref. 0.2-0.8 wt.%), Cu 0.2-2.0 wt.% (pref. 0.2-1.0 wt.%). In this case also the total amt. of Ni and Cu should be between 1.0 and 2.5 wt.%.

Description: Technical Field This invention relates to an alloy steel powder for powder metallurgy used in the manufacture of various sintered parts. Background Art It has hitherto been known that sintered materials can be obtained by using pure iron powder as the main starting material. However, the tensile strengh of such a sintered material is about 30∼40 kgf/mm², which is a low value for this mechanical property, so that the application of the material is undesirably restricted to low load pulleys and the like. As a means for solving the above drawback, there has been developed a technique of utilizing an alloy steel powder obtained by including various alloying ingredients such as Mn, Ni, Cr and Mo into powdery particles (for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 49-28,287). By means of such an alloy steel powder, it is possible to raise the strength of the steel powder as a result of the alloying. However the required plastic deformation during forming becomes more difficult to achieve as the strength increases and this impedes the compressibility. Thus the strength of the sintered body is degraded because of reduction of the sintered density. Therefore, the resulting sintered body has inadequate mechanical properties. In order to improve the strength by alloying, therefore, it is important to select the alloying ingredients and their composition ranges so as not to impede the compressibility of the steel powder as far as possible. As the other important properties of sintered mechanical parts obtained through molding-sintering-heat treatment, there may be mentioned the hardened dimensional deviation through heat treatment after the sintering and the hardness. In general, it is enough to select alloying ingredients which give excellent hardenability in order to provide sufficient hardness. On the other hand, the strain through heat treatment is mainly caused by an amount of phase transformation in the heat treatment, i.e. an amount of martensitic transformation and the microscopically or macroscopically scattering of the residual austenite amount, so that the hardening transformed dimensional deviation becomes generally larger in compositions having good hardenability, which tends to make the change of shape and size large. Up to now, the planning of steel powder has been exclusively made from the viewpoint of the mechanical properties of the sintered body such as hardness, strength, toughness and so on. On the other hand, sufficient examination has not been made from the viewpoint of providing an effective steel powder composition for powder metallurgy capable of reducing the strain through heat treatment after the sintering and improving the hardness of the sintered body. For instance, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 55-36,260 discloses an Fe-base sintered body containing Ni and W or Ni, W and Mo and a method of producing the same. The object of this publication is to obtain high strength, high toughness sintered bodies by fundamentally mixing iron powder with metal powders as an alloying ingredient. The present invention has been developed under the aforementioned situation, and is to provide alloy steel powders for powder metallurgy which are easily plastically deformed during forming; which have excellent compressibility, high sintered density, reduced hardened dimensional deviation through heat treatment, and high hardness after heat treatment of the sintered body; and which are useful as a starting material for sintered bodies requiring high strength and hardness in gears for automobile transmissions or the like. The inventors have made various studies in order to solve the above problems and found that the object can be advantageously achieved by utilizing W and Ni, and optionally Mo or Cu as an alloying ingredient for steel powder. The invention is based on this knowledge. Accordingly, the present invention provides an alloy steel powder for powder metallurgy consisting of 0.2∼2.0 wt% of W, 0.8∼3.0 wt% of Ni, optionally 0.1∼1.0 wt% of Mo, and optionally 0.2∼2.0 wt% of Cu, with the balance being Fe and inevitable impurities. In an embodiment, the powder contains 0.2∼1.6 wt% (hereinafter simply referred to as %) of W and 1.0∼2.5% of Ni and optionally 0.2∼0.8% of Mo and/or optionally 0.2∼1.0% of Cu in which latter case the sum of the Ni and Cu contents is from 1.0∼2.5%. Firstly, the reason why the composition of the alloy steel powder according to the invention is limited to the above ranges will be described. W: 0.2∼2.0% Since tungsten oxide is readily reducible it is easily reduced even when performing the cheap water-atomizing process, and it is easy, by the usual reduction decarburization to reduce C, O in the steel powder which is a factor impeding the compressibility. Thus W effectively contributes to the improvement of compressibility. Futhermore, W is an element enhancing the hardenability and forms a hard carbide, so that it has the advantage that the hardness of the resulting sintered body is enhanced by forming a carbide with C in the steel powder through a heat treatment such as carburization hardening or the like usually used in the sintered body. Moreover, since the carbide is formed, a microstructure containing less C in the matrix (that is less strain in the crystal lattice) such as a low carbon martensite structure or the like is obtained. Thus the effect of reducing the strain after heat treatment is also produced. However, when the content is less than 0.2%, the contribution towards enhancing the hardness in the heat treatment of the sintered body is small while, when it exceeds 2%, not only is the degradation of compressibility of the steel powder conspicuous, but also the formation of carbide is accelerated during the heat treatment of the sintered body which reduces the C content in the matrix and hence reduces the hardness of the sintered body. Therefore, the W content is limited to a range of 0.2∼2.0%, preferably 0.2∼1.6%. Ni: 0.8∼3.0% Ni is useful as a solution element restraining the coarsening of austenite crystal grains and reinforcing the matrix. It also contributes to effectively suppress the carburization in the heat treatment such as carburization hardening or the like to reduce the strain of the sintered body after heat treatment. However, when the content is less than 0.8%, the matrix effective for the sintered body can not be reinforced, while when it exceeds 3.0%, not only does the compressibility of the steel powder lower, but also the increase of austenite remaining in the sintered body during heat treatment becomes conspicuous and increases the strain through heat treatment. Therefore, the Ni content is limited to a range of 0.8∼3.0%, preferably 1.0∼2.5%. Although the above has been described with respect to the fundamental components, Mo and Cu may further be added alone or in admixture. Mo: 0.1∼1.0% Mo is a carbide forming element like W, and forms a carbide in the steel to enhance the hardenability, and acts to further increase the addition effect of W. Furthermore, the addition of Mo does not undesirably increase the strain through heat treatment. However, if the Mo content is less than 0.1%, the effect of enhancing the hardenability is poor and hence the contribution to the increase of hardness through heat treatment of the sintered body is small. However if it exceeds 1.0%, degradation of the compressibility of the steel powder is caused. Therefore, Mo is added in an amount of 0.1∼1.0%, preferably 0.2∼0.8%. Cu: 0.2∼2.0% Cu effectively contributes to the enhancement of hardenability in combination with carbide forming elements such as W, Mo or the like. However, if the Cu content is less than 0.2%, the effect of enhancing the hardenability is poor and hence the contribution to the sintered body is small. If it exceeds 2.0%, an increase in the residual austenite quantity after heat treatment is caused to increase the strength and the strain through heat treatment. Therefore, it is added in an amount of 0.2∼2.0%, preferably 0.2∼1.0%. Moreover, the addition of Cu does not increase the strain through heat treatment similar to the addition of Mo. When using Cu, it is favorable that the total amount of Cu and Ni is within a range of 1.0∼2.5%. When the total amount is less than 1.0%, the matrix of the sintered body cannot effectively be reinforced, while when it exceeds 2.5%, not only does the compressibility of the steel powder become lower, but also the increase of austenite remaining in the sintered body during heat treatment becomes undesirably conspicuous and increases the strain through heat treatment. Since the alloying powder according to the invention contains hardly any reducing elements such as Cr, Mn or the like, the cheap water-atomizing gas reducing process may advantageously be applied during production of the powder. Moreover, the production of the alloy steel powder according to the invention is not limited to the aforementioned water-atomizing gas reducing process. Any of the other well-known processes may naturally be used. Brief Explanation of Drawings Fig. 1 is a graph showing the relationship between W content in a steel powder containing W and Ni and the green density when the alloy steel powder is molded into a green body; Fig. 2 is a graph showing the relationship between the Ni content in a steel powder containing W and Ni and the green density when the steel powder is molded into a green body; and Fig. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between the Mo content in a steel powder containing W, Ni and Mo and the green density when the steel powder is molded into a green body. Best Mode of Carrying out the Invention Example 1 A steel powder containing W and Ni as an alloying ingredient was prepared by the water-atomizing process, and was annealed in a hydrogen gas atmosphere at 1,000°C for 60 minutes. The resulting alloy steel powder was sieved with _60 mesh (sieve opening 0,25 mm) and zinc stearat was added in an amount of 0.75%. The mixture was then formed into a green body under a forming pressure of 7 ton/cm². As to the chemical composition, the Ni content was 1.0%, while the W content was varied within a range of 0.2% to 2.5%. The thus obtained green densities are shown in Fig. 1. As seen from Fig. 1, when the W content in the steel powder exceeds 2%, the compressibility rapidly lowers, while when it satisfies the proper range defined in the invention, excellent compressibility is obtained with a green density of not less than 7.0 g/cm³. Example 2 A steel powder having a constant W content of 0.5% and a variable Ni content of 0.8% to 4% was prepared by the same method as described in Example 1. It was formed into a green body under the same conditions as described in Example 1 to obtain a green density as shown in Fig. 2. As seen from Fig. 2, when the Ni content in the steel powder exceeds 3%, the compressibility rapidly lowers, while when it is within a range of 0.8∼3.0% as in the invention, excellent compressibility is obtained with a green density of not less than 7.0 g/cm³. Example 3 A steel powder having a constant W content of 0.5%, a constant Ni content of 2% and a variable Mo content of 0.1% to 1.5% was prepared by the same method as described in Example 1. It was formed into a green body under the same conditions as described in Example 1 to obtain a green density as shown in Fig. 3. As seen from Fig. 3, when the Mo content exceeds 1.0%, the compressibility largely lowers, while when it is within a range of 0.1∼1.0% as in the invention, excellent compressibility is obtained with a green density of not less than 7.0 g/cm³. Example 4 Alloy steel powders having the chemical compositions as shown in Table 1 were prepared by the same method as described in Example 1. The green density of the resulting green bodies as well as the standard deviation in size change through heat treatment and the hardness of the sintered body obtained by sintering the steel powder and subjecting it to the heat treatment were measured to obtain the results as shown in Table 1. The measurements of the size change and hardness were made as follows. That is, the steel powder was admixed with zinc stearate in an amount of 0.75% and formed into a tablet of  60 × 20 mm having a green density of 7.0 g/cm³, which was then sintered in an AX gas atmosphere at 1,150°C for 60 minutes and subjected to carburization and oil hardening in an atmosphere having a carbon potential of 0.7%. With respect to the heat-treated sintered body, the outer diameters falling at right angles to each other were measured and the difference therebetween was calculated as a standard deviation, which was an indication of strain scattering through heat treatment, while the hardness of the resulting sintered body surface was mesured. As is apparent from Table 1, all of the alloy steel powders according to the invention (Sample Nos. 1∼8) are good in compressibility, have very small dimensional deviation introduced by heat treatment of the sintered body, and have excellent hardness after heat treatment. Particularly, in the sample Nos. 5∼8 containing Mo and/or Cu, the hardness is greatly improved. Industrial Applicability According to the invention, alloy steel powders for powder metallurgy having excellent strength and hardness and exhibiting less change of shape and size through heat treatment after annealing can be obtained without causing degradation of compressibility, so that they are more advantageously adaptable as a starting material for sintered mechanical parts such as gears for automobile transmission and so on requiring not only high strength and hardness but also a highly precise size.

Claims: 1. An alloy steel powder for powder metallurgy consisting of 0.2∼2.0 wt% of W, 0.8∼3.0 wt% of Ni, optionally 0.1∼1.0 wt% of Mo, and optionally 0.2∼2.0 wt% of Cu, with the balance being Fe and inevitable impurities. 2. The alloy steel powder according to claim 1, which contains 0.2∼1.6 wt% of W and 1.0∼2.5 wt% of Ni. 3. The alloy steel powder according to claim 2, which contains 0.2∼0.8 wt% of Mo. 4. The alloy steel powder according to claim 2, which contains 0.2∼1.0 wt% of Cu wherein Ni + Cu = 1.0∼2.5 wt%. 5. The alloy steel powder according to claim 3, which contains 0.2∼1.0 wt% of Cu wherein Ni + Cu = 1.0∼2.5 wt%.

Inventors: ABE, TERUYOSHI, KAWASAKI STEEL CORPORATION, KAWANO, MASAKI, KAWASAKI STEEL CORPORATION, OGURA, KUNIAKI, KAWASAKI STEEL CORPORATION, TAKAJO, SHIGEAKI, KAWASAKI STEEL CORPORATION
Applicants: KAWASAKI STEEL CORPORATION
Application year: 1987
Main classification: B22F1
IPC codes: C22C38, C22C33, B22F1