THE EFFECT OF SINTERING TIME ON TENSILE STRENGTH OF NB-V MICROALLOYED POWDER METALLURGY STEELS

Abstract

Microalloyed steels can be defined as low alloyed high strength steels which increase the strength of steel by mechanisms such as precipitation hardening, aggregation hardening, particle size reduction, dispersion hardening by adding microalloy elements such as aluminium, niobium, vanadium and titanium in the range of 0.05% and 0.20%. Powder metallurgy is one of the manufacturing methods in which small parts which are difficult to manufacture can be produced in series with some parts which are close to the final shape with minimum material loss and which cannot be produced by other production methods. In this work, effect of different sintering time (1h., 2h. and 3h.) on the tensile strength of powder metallurgy (PM) plain carbon steel and microalloyed steels with different amount of niobium and vanadium content (0-0.1-0.2 wt%) were investigated. As a result, it was determined that the added alloying elements increased the mechanical properties. 0.2 wt % Nb-V added and sintered 2 h. PM steel showed the highest values in yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS).