This article summarizes the general classification, mechanical properties, and applications of ferrous powder metallurgy (PM) materials for parts production. It discusses four principal ferrous PM alloy types: admixed elemental alloys, diffusion alloys, prealloys, and hybrid alloys. The article reviews the benefits and disadvantages as well as the effect of processing on the properties and material microstructure of these alloys. It contains tables that list the mechanical properties of various iron-copper and copper steels.

Certain metal products can be produced only by powder metallurgy; among these products are materials whose porosity is controlled. Successful production by powder metallurgy depends on the proper selection and control of process variables: powder characteristics; powder preparation; type of compacting press; design of compacting tools and dies; type of sintering furnace; composition of the sintering atmosphere; choice of production cycle, including sintering time and temperature; and secondary operations and heat treatment. When the application of a powder metallurgy part requires high levels of strength, toughness, or hardness, the mechanical properties can be improved or modified by infiltration, heat treatment, or a secondary mechanical forming operation such as cold re-pressing or powder forging. The article also discusses the effect of the secondary processes on P/M mechanical properties.

Molten salt, including nitrite/nitrate salts, is the quenching medium most commonly used in austempering and marquenching of ferrous materials. This article describes the use of molten salts in the quenching of ferrous materials. It provides information on the processing and operation of salt quenching including considerations of time, temperature, environment, and safety, as well as critical characteristics such as the composition of the quenchant, agitation, and water additions.

Boriding is a thermochemical diffusion-based surface-hardening process that can be applied to a wide variety of ferrous, nonferrous, and cermet materials. It is performed on metal components as a solution for extending the life of metal parts that wear out too quickly in applications involving severe wear. This article presents a variety of methods and media used for boriding of ferrous materials, and explains their advantages, limitations, and applications. These methods include pack cementation boriding, gas boriding, plasma boriding, electroless salt bath boriding, electrolytic salt bath boriding, and fluidized-bed boriding. The article briefly describes the chemical vapor deposition process, which has emerged to be dominant among metal-boride deposition processes.

Ferrous metals are metals that contain primarily iron and may have small amounts of other elements added to give the desired properties. This article discuses the characteristics of steel products used in most industries, including construction, automotive, energy, shipping, and agriculture. These products include bars, rods, wires, hot and cold rolled sheets, strip plates, tin mill products, steel tubes, castings, and forgings. The article also provides information on the methods used to prevent or control the rusting of ferrous materials, namely, alloying, coating, and covering.

This article is a comprehensive collection of tables listing: dangerous reactions of chemicals and designations of etchants; chemical-polishing solutions for irons and steels and nonferrous materials; attack-polishing solutions, macrostructure etchants for iron and steel; and major microstructure etchants for common phases and constituents in ferrous materials.

Case hardening is defined as a process by which a ferrous material is hardened in such a manner that the surface layer, known as the case, becomes substantially harder than the remaining material, known as the core. This article discusses the equipment required, process variables, carbon and hardness gradients, and process procedures of different types of case hardening methods: carburizing (gas, pack, liquid, vacuum, and plasma), nitriding (gas, liquid, plasma), carbonitriding, cyaniding and ferritic nitrocarburizing. An accurate and repeatable method of measuring case depth is essential for quality control of the case hardening process and for evaluation of workpieces for conformance with specifications. The article also discusses various case depth measurement methods, including chemical, mechanical, visual, and nondestructive methods.

Boronizing is a case hardening process for metals to improve the wear life and galling resistance of metal surfaces. Boronizing can be carried out using several techniques. This article discusses the powder pack cementation process for carrying out boronizing. It describes the structures of boride layers in ferrous materials and boride-layer structures in nickel-base superalloys. The primary reason for boriding metals is to increase wear resistance against abrasion and erosion. The article reviews the wear resistance and coefficient of friction of boride layers, as well as galling resistance of borided surfaces. It concludes with a discussion on boronizing plus physical vapor deposition (PVD) overlay coating.

The organizations that are most active in the development of standards for powder metallurgy (PM) are the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF), and International Standards Organization (ISO). This article presents the test method standards, materials standards, and material designation codes for PM materials. It provides information on the codes for structural parts, PM soft magnetic materials, PM self-lubricating bearings, metal injection molded materials, and powder forged materials.

Iron powders are the most widely used powder metallurgy (P/M) material for structural parts. This article reviews low to medium density iron and low-alloy steel parts produced by the pressing and sintering technology. It explains different powder production methods, including Hoeganaes process, Pyron process, atomization of liquid metal, thermal decomposition and the electrodeposition process for carbonyl and electrolytic iron powders. It describes the types of compaction and sintering, explaining their effects of processing with designations. Further, the article deals with the mechanical and physical properties of ferrous P/M materials, which may depend on certain factors, namely microstructure, porosity, density, infiltration, re-pressing, chemical composition, and heat treatment.

This article discusses the application of friction stir processing (FSP) and friction surfacing for tribological components. It describes the three critical aspects involved in the application of FSP for near-surface material modifications intended for tribological applications. These include tools, processing parameters, and machines. The article also discusses the equipment and processing parameters for friction surfacing. It describes various hybrid stir processing techniques that involve preheating of the workpiece material, especially relatively hard and high-strength ones. The article presents a partial list of surface-modification methods based on FSP. The partial list includes surface hardening, surface composites, and additive coating. The article also provides information on generation of residual stresses in metallic materials and alloys form different variants of FSP.

Repair welding is a necessary operation for most fabricators and can cost more than the price of the original component if performed improperly. This article provides a discussion on the repair welding of castings for ferrous and nonferrous materials. The discussion focuses on the surface preparation, weld repair process selection, joint selection, filler metal selection, weld repair considerations, deposition techniques, postweld heat treatment, and verification of weld repair quality.