An experimental investigation of metal powder compaction at elevated temperature

The warm compaction process was initiated in the nineties and found that metal powder formed at elevated temperature gives significant impact on the entire compaction process and the quality of the green compact as well as the final product. Mechanical properties of green compact are largely influenced by the forming temperature, lubricant and lubrication mechanism, and loading condition. This paper presents the powder compaction study from experimental investigation covering full scale compaction phases. The optimum forming temperature, amount of lubricant content, and loading conditions are also presented. Several experiments have been conducted using T-shape die to generate green compacts from iron powder. The forming temperature has been ranged from room temperature (30 °C) to 150 °C. Finally, the generated green compacts are tested mechanically to justify the mechanical properties. It has been found that the optimum forming temperature for iron powder is about 130–150 °C whereas the lubricant content is about 0.5 wt%.