Keystone Powdered Metal Company

Kevin A Bauer

Peter G Imbrogno

Timothy E Geiman

The present invention provides a method of manufacturing combination gears and compound gears having challenging geometries using powder metal technology. This method allows for the production of combination gears and compound gears having any combination of straight or helical gear faces even in cases where the smaller gear intersects the flange of the larger gear creating an inside corner. The subject invention more specifically relates to a method for manufacturing a combination gear or a compound gear having a larger diameter gear face and a smaller diameter gear face, said method comprising molding a powder metal composition into a green preform having the smaller diameter gear face and a larger diameter cylindrical blank face, and subsequently machining the larger diameter cylindrical blank face into the larger diameter gear face.

Method for manufacturing combination or compound gears

This invention is based upon the discovery that prototype parts having physical characteristics that mimic those of powder metal parts can be made by laser powder bed fusion techniques in cases where water or gas atomized powder metals are employed in the laser fusion procedure. More specifically, parts made utilizing water or gas atomized powder metals in such additive procedures, using unique printing parameters to create desired porosity levels within the component, have densities and microstructures that approximate those made using conventional powder metal manufacturing techniques. For instance, such parts can be made so as to have a density which is within the range of about 6.0 g/cc to 7.8 g/cc and which have physical properties that are equivalent to those of powder metal parts of comparable densities.

Method for making powder metal prototypes by 3-D printing

This invention discloses a method of manufacturing a desired metal part which comprises (1) providing an powder metal sinterbraze hard steel component and a wrought steel stamping component; (2) affixing the powder metal hard steel component and the wrought steel stamping component together with a brazing filler metal being alloyed at the interface between the powder metal hard steel component and the wrought steel stamping component; (3) sinter brazing the powder metal hard steel component and the wrought steel stamping component together to produce an in-process metal part; and (4) tempering the in-process metal part to produce the desired metal part.

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St. Marys, PA, United States of America

Kevin A Bauer