Cost savings win the day for PM parts

Characteristic of all the prize winners in the 2001 International Powder Metallurgy (PM) Design Competition, sponsored by the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF), is the significant cost savings offered by the technology. Compared to competitive routes such as casting, stamping, forging and machining, these winning parts provide cost reductions ranging from a tidy 30% to a whopping 90%, and they provide performance advantages too. Made by conventional PM, warm compaction and metal injection moulding (MIM), the parts honoured at the New Orleans PM2TEC 2001 show in May target applications in automatic and manual automobile transmissions, a range of surgical instruments, industrial pumps, off-road vehicles, locks and hand tools.