Research On Numerical Simulation Of The Iron-based Powder Warm Compaction Forming Law

The powder metallurgic (PM) parts are widely used in the fields of mechanics, automobile,electronics, automation with the advantages of low cost, easy formation. And this makes thepowder metallurgy a promising broad market prospect. Through conventional powdercompaction processes, the relative density of PM parts is generally lower than90%. Theoptimization of the molding process in order to fabricate the PM products with high densityand high mechanical properties has become the focus of PM production. As a rapid,effective and detailed method, finite element simulation technology is usually adopted toanalyze densification of powder compaction process，which will shorten the period of newproduct development and reduce the costs. And this will provide valuable guidance for theactual industry.In this paper, the compaction process of the iron-based powder and the related finiteelement theory during the numerical simulation molding were firstly summarized. Thedifficulties during the numerical simulation process were then analyzed. An optimizedsoftware for simulation analysis was selected after the comprehensive comparison ofseveral finite element analysis softwares,Iron-based material sample was produced by warm compaction method. The Young’sModulus of the sample was measured by dynamic resonance method, and its coefficient ofthermal expansion was measured by differential method. The average value of the Young’smodulus and the coefficient of thermal expansion were20.327GPa and3.53E-05,respectively. The measurement results were more accurate for parameter definition duringthe simulation.This study focused on the warm compaction process of powder metallurgy. Based on theoptimal selection of MSC Marc finite element software and the finite element simulationanalysis technology, the numerical simulation was conducted for the analysis of the formingprocess of the iron-based powder parts. After systematic analysis of simulation results, thefluidity of the iron-based powder during the compaction process at different temperatures was investigated. And the optimized temperature range could be obtained for the warmcompaction experiment. At the same time, we also analyzed the densification mechanism ofwarm compaction process.The finite element model was established during our simulation. The selection of the modelparameters, the contact model settings and the relevant conclusions during the simulationprocess will be benificial for the optization of warm compaction technology and the shapeof mold. The results of this paper will help to improve the quality of the powder metallurgyparts.