Determination of Crack Limits in Sinter Components by Compaction Process Performance Analysis

Cracks in sinter component production are a significant concern in the field of powder metallurgy, and predicting and avoiding them is crucial for ensuring the quality and reliability of the final products. This study aims to contribute to this effort by investigating the variability of cracks under constant press settings by studying the performance of the compaction process. To this end, we intentionally induced cracks at different levels and studied the respective process performance. Our results show that with the same settings of the powder compaction press, 99% of the produced cracks could be found within a range of ±25% of the overall mean of the crack lengths. The lower and upper limits of crack lengths found and the approach presented for their determination can be used in future for the classification of good and bad parts on the basis of the availability of only a few crack measurements and permissible values of crack lengths that have yet to be defined.