According to "Perspective Advanced Manufacturing," powder metallurgy is a technology that performs metal forming processes by heating and compacting metal powders to below their melting point. This technology has existed for more than 100 years and has been recognized as a high-quality technology for producing various high-quality parts in the past 25 years. Compared with other metal forming technologies, such as forging and casting, this technology has advantages in terms of material utilization, shape complexity, and near-net-shape control. Because of its ability to promote sustainable development, powder metallurgy has been recognized. Green technology.
1 Powder metallurgy - the preferred forming process for cost-effective parts
According to different formulations, the tensile strength of powder metallurgy parts is between 170 and 1200 MPa. Compared with the traditional parts manufacturing technology, the following advantages are achieved: 1) The parts are close to the final size, have a good finish, reduce the subsequent processing cost, and minimize Loss of waste; 2) The ability to produce complex or uniquely shaped parts that cannot be manufactured by other processes; 3) The ability to control the porosity of the product to meet the requirements for self-lubrication and wear resistance. Compared with the traditional machining cutting technology, powder metallurgy can save energy by 60% and the material utilization rate is up to 95%, which is an excellent choice for cost-effective components. As an important molding technology for additive manufacturing, it has become an important part of China's manufacturing of 2025.
2 The market size of the global year is 8 billion U.S. dollars. The revenue of the leading GKN powder metallurgy is over 10 billion RMB.
According to global powder metallurgy leading GKN company, in 2016, global powder metallurgy products had sales of about 8 billion US dollars. GKN Corporation is a leading company in the field of powder metallurgy. Its products include components for automotive engines, transmissions, pumps, bodies, chassis, and compressors, and metal injection molding. The GKN powder metallurgy operating revenue has been maintained at around US$1.4 billion for the past five years, and its operating profit margin has also stabilized at around 10%. Divided by purpose, 72% of the total sales revenue of auto parts accounted for 85% of the sales of its powder metallurgy parts.
3 The domestic automobile industry occupies a relatively low proportion, and the market space of more than 20 billion yuan has yet to be developed.
At present, the average amount of powder metallurgical products per vehicle in China is only about 5kg, which is far lower than the 14kg in Europe and 19.5kg in the United States. On the other hand, in 2016, China's domestic auto powder metallurgy products accounted for about 60% of the total powder metallurgy products, but it is still far lower than the 80% of developed countries. At the same time, the types of automotive powder metallurgy products in China are not complete. Currently, they are mainly applied to low-tech products such as connecting rods and gaskets, while VVTs, VCTs, and planetary gears with higher technical requirements have higher technical barriers. At present, most companies in China cannot mass produce. Powder metallurgy is mainly applied to the two fields of engine and gearbox in automobiles. Assume that the sales of passenger cars will reach 30 million by 2020, the market size of engine powder metallurgy parts will be about 4 billion yuan, and the market size of gearbox powder metallurgy parts and components will be about 150. 100 million yuan. Coupled with powder metallurgy parts used in automobile chassis, the domestic auto powder metallurgy market has a space of 20 billion yuan.
--Powder metallurgy application process
Powder metallurgy includes traditional methods, metal injection molding (MIM), metal 3D printing (AM) and isostatic pressing (IP). Among them, the most widely used methods in the automotive and other fields are the traditional method and the MIM method. The required raw materials, powder metallurgy mixed powders, are available in two types, pre-mixed powders from powdered and powdered suppliers used by part manufacturers.
- Metal injection molding (MIM)
This process offers the possibility of manufacturing complex shaped parts, using fine metal powders (usually less than 20 microns), and adhesives (various thermoplastics, waxes, etc.) to prepare custom materials into the cavity (or multiple chambers) ) for injection molding.
The MIM process is very similar to plastic injection molding and high pressure die casting. It produces the same shape and structural characteristics. However, this is limited to relatively small (generally less than 250 grams), highly complex parts that would otherwise require extensive finishing or assembly operations.
The parts produced by the metal injection molding process have almost the same mechanical properties as forged materials, providing virtually unlimited shape and geometric features, and a very high production rate.
-Isostatic pressure (IP)
It is suitable for powder compacted parts with equal pressure in all directions, so as to achieve the geometrical limit of maximum density and uniform microstructure and no uniaxial pressure. Used to produce dense high performance parts.
The isostatic pressure is classified into cold and hot isostatic pressing. The cold isostatic pressing (CIP) is compacting the "green parts" at room temperature, while the hot isostatic pressing (HIP) passes through the solid diffusion to consolidate the parts at high temperature, heat, etc. Static pressure can also be used to eliminate the residual porosity of sintered powder metallurgy parts.
-3D printing
Metal 3D printing includes direct metal 3D printing and indirect metal 3D printing.
Metal powder bed melting (PBF) is currently the most widely used metal 3D printing technology. Including last year's General Electric investment $ 1.4 billion acquisition of ConceptLaser and Arcam, to further strengthen the metal powder bed melting market attention. PBF is considered as a direct metal 3D printing technology, including laser melting and electron beam melting. At present, the laser melting method is more widely used. In this area, many brands are active, including ConceptLaser and Arcam acquired by GE, including the original metal 3D printing solution provider EOS Germany, SLM Solutions Germany, Renishaw UK, and the German TRUMPF machine tool manufacturer entering the PBF field, and Demagensin Seiki and so on.
There is also a direct metal 3D printing technology (LENS-Directed Energy Deposition Technology) which is another application of metallurgical powders.
The indirect metal 3D printing technology, as the name implies, means that the metal parts obtained through the metal 3D printing process are not the final parts, but need to remove the chemical substances in the metal parts through the heat treatment process of the high temperature furnace to obtain dense Metal parts.
Of course, the current indirect metal 3D printing technology includes a variety of different technologies. According to the market research of 3D Science Valley, a major category is the binderjetting technology represented by Desktopmetal, 3DEO, and Markforged, and the other is the NanoParticle Jetting technology represented by Xjet. The third category is Prodways' metal indirect 3D printing technology, and the fourth category is HP's metal 3D printing technology. GE will also launch adhesive 3D printing equipment for metal parts.
- Powder metallurgy preparation
The milling equipment is applied to the raw material milling process. The milling methods can be divided into three major categories: mechanical milling, physical milling, chemical milling, and commonly used milling methods are oxide reduction, atomization, rotating electrode, electrolysis, and mechanical crushing. The equipment used for the milling method is also different. According to different milling methods, the main equipment used includes reduction furnaces, ion membrane electrolyzers, and ball mills.
-- Powder metallurgy application market
The application of powder metallurgy parts is very extensive and can be divided into two major categories: The first is the parts that are difficult to manufacture by other methods, such as tungsten, molybdenum or tungsten carbide. In addition, oil bearing, filters and many types of hard and soft magnetic components are produced using powder metallurgy technology. The second category is to provide a cost-effective alternative to castings and forgings, such as automotive clutch plates, connecting rods, camshafts, and planetary gear carriers.
Powder metallurgy products are widely used in the automotive industry, aerospace industry, home appliance industry and consumer electronics industry. Among them, the automotive industry, aerospace industry is a high-end market, high value-added products; At present, China's domestic powder metallurgy companies mainly produce household electrical appliances, consumer electronics powder metallurgy products. The powder metallurgy products of the household appliance industry mainly include refrigerators, compressors used in air conditioners, porous self-lubricating bearings used in washing machines, electric fans, gears and magnets in air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, etc.; consumer electronics, metal casings, volume of many mobile phone brands Buttons, feet, SIM card trays and other components are powder metallurgy products. However, the technology threshold of powder metallurgy parts in the household appliance and consumer electronics industries is relatively low, and all types of small and medium-sized manufacturers are competing to enter. This has led to fierce competition in China's domestic low-end powder metallurgy market.
The automotive industry is the main application area, accounting for about 70%. Other important markets include entertainment, home appliances, industrial motors and controls, hardware and business machines. In 2016, China's domestic auto powder metallurgy products accounted for about 60% of the total powder metallurgy products, but it is still lower than 80% of the developed countries. At the same time, the types of automobile powder metallurgy products in China are not complete, and currently, they are mainly connected rods, gaskets, sprockets and other products with relatively low technological content. However, most companies cannot mass-produce VVTs with higher technical requirements. VCT, planetary gears and other products.
Powder metallurgy automotive parts are mainly used in two major categories of vehicles: engines, gearboxes/transfer cases. According to the statistics of MPIF (Metal Powder Industry Federation), powder metallurgy parts are used in more than 300 separate automotive parts and the total number of parts exceeds 750. Considering energy-saving emission reduction and cost control factors, domestic companies will increasingly use the powder metallurgy process to produce automotive parts and components in the future.
Automotive engines and gearboxes are the two most widely used fields for powder metallurgy components. In these two areas, the market size of engine powder metallurgy parts and components is about 4 billion yuan, and the market size of gearbox powder metallurgy parts and components is about 15 billion yuan. Coupled with powder metallurgy parts used in automobile chassis, the domestic auto powder metallurgy market has a space of 20 billion yuan.
- Engine powder metallurgy market scale is about 4 billion
In the field of automobile engines, an average of two engine variable timing valves (VVT) are used on a passenger car, and the unit price is about RMB 70, that is, the value of each vehicle corresponds to RMB 140/car, according to the report issued by Zhiyan Consulting. The "2017-2022 China Automotive Market Operational Situation and Investment Strategy Report" predicts that China's passenger vehicle sales will reach 30 million units by 2020, and VVT manufactured using powder metallurgy technology will have a development space of about RMB 4.2 billion.
- Gearbox powder metallurgy market scale is about 15 billion
In the field of automobile transmissions, there are four categories of automobile transmissions, manual transmission (MT), which accounts for approximately 45% of the market, automatic transmission (AT) which accounts for 30% of the market, and continuously variable transmission (CVT) which accounts for 15% of the market. The clutch (DCT) accounted for 10% of the market share, of which the AT and DCT markets developed rapidly with more opportunities, and the CVT market had fewer powder metallurgy opportunities.
The prices of powder metallurgy components used in single MT, AT, CVT, and DCT gearboxes are approximately 500 yuan, 600 yuan, 200 yuan, and 500 yuan respectively. In 2020, China's passenger vehicle sales are expected to reach 30 million vehicles. Assuming constant market share for all types of transmissions, the number of MT, AT, CVT, and DCT gearboxes will be 13.5 million, 9 million, 4.5 million, and 3 million, respectively. The total market space for powder metallurgy components in the transmission is approximately 15 billion yuan.
If the powder metallurgy industry can achieve technological breakthroughs, and strength, wear resistance and other indicators to further enhance, then the combination of gears, transmission gears and other traditional forging parts are expected to be replaced by powder metallurgy parts, the market scale will further explosive expansion.
-- Powder metallurgy market
According to GKN estimates, in 2016, global sales of powder metallurgy products were approximately US$8 billion. Among them, the company’s total sales of the top ten sales are about US$4.5 billion, and its market share accounts for about 60%. Among the top ten companies, five are European companies, four are Japanese companies, and one is an American company. GKN is an industry leader. In 2016, its powder department sales amounted to 1.03 billion pounds (1.4 billion US dollars), and its market share accounted for about 18%, which was far higher than the 9% market share of the second Sumitomo Electric.
According to statistics from the China National Machinery Association Powder Metallurgy Branch, China produced 480,000 tons of powder metallurgy parts in 2016, with sales of 6.4 billion yuan, of which the auto industry’s sales were 4 billion yuan, accounting for 62% of total sales. In 2017, the size of the powder metallurgy market is expected to reach 6.9 billion, achieving steady growth.
GKN is a leading company in the field of powder metallurgy, with the largest sales scale and the most complete product range. In the field of powder metallurgy has a very good reference. GKN powder metallurgy consists of two parts: GKNSintermetals and Hoeganaes. GKNSintermetals is an industry leader in powder metallurgy forming parts and has the largest market share in the world. Products include powder metallurgy parts for automotive engines, gearboxes, pumps, bodies, chassis, compressors, bearings and filters made of powder metallurgy, metal injection molded parts, powder metallurgy parts for other industrial applications, and The soft magnetic component of the motor. Hoeganaes is a company that GKN specializes in providing high quality metal powders. Its products include iron powder, copper powder, tungsten powder, titanium powder and other metal powders, which are widely used in powder metallurgy, chemical and welding industries. Its market share is second in the world.
In 2016, GKN's powder metallurgy business revenue was US$1.4 billion. Sintermetals contributed 1.17 billion US dollars in revenue, accounting for 83.6% of total revenue; Hoeganaes contributed 230 million US dollars in revenue, accounting for 16.4% of total revenue. Its major customers include Ford, General Motors, Schaeffler, BorgWarner and many other well-known automobile companies and auto parts companies.
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