An investigation on the strength-porosity relation in sintered 17-4 PHSTS produced by powder injection molding

Abstract

In the present study, PIM process has been employed to produce sintered specimens with the various porosities from the initial stage of sintering and to the stage of nearly full density. A series of tensile tests has been conducted on these specimens at room temperature to elucidate the effect of a wide range of porosity. The material used in this study was 17-4 PH stainless steel. Based on the results of tensile tests on PIMed specimens with the various porosity, a new approach to predict the strength and the elongation of sintered materials has been carried out and a new framework combining neck growth model and ideal pore model has been established. By applying this new model to not only the results obtained in this study but also to previously published data, its generality and validity were sufficiently verified.