Impact Compaction of Iron Powder by Electromagnetic Forming

Electromagnetic forming has been used for plastic deformation technology of metal materials. In this paper, shock compaction of iron powder compacts by electromagnetic forming was attempted to investigate a possibility of the electromagnetic pressure sintering. An iron compact was put into a solenoid coil and a strong pulse current was passed through the coil, then the compact was compressed by electromagnetic pressure. But, the compact was broken to pieces by the strong electromagnetic filed. The destruction was caused by poor electric conductivity and low toughness of the compact. Accordingly, the compact was pre-sintered in a vacuum furnace to improve its electric conductivity and toughness. The electromagnetic forming of the pre-sintered compact increased the relative density. Therefore the processing may be applicable to powder pressure sintering.