The winners in the 2018 Powder Metallurgy (PM) Design Excellence Awards competition, sponsored by the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF), demonstrate outstanding examples of PM’s diversity.
The grand prize in the Hand Tools/Recreation category was won by FMS Corporation for three sinter-hardened steel parts made for Graco, Inc.: an eccentric gear, a combination gear, and a connecting rod that incorporates a bronze bearing. The parts comprise an assembly that drives a piston pump within a paint sprayer. The complex eccentric gear, which is compacted using cored holes on one side to balance the moment of inertia around the center shaft, features AGMA class 6 gear quality. The combination gear is complex as well, combining a helical gear and a spur gear. The bronze bearing is compacted, sintered, and sized in place inside the connecting rod, then oil impregnated. The combination gear and connecting rod are manufactured completely net-shape.
Winners of the Design Excellence Awards Competition were announced at the POWDERMET2018 International Conference on Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials.
MORE INFO www.mpif.org
