Sintered Metal
Sintered metal is a solid product made by pressing metal powder into a coherent mass without heating the metal to its melting point. Sintered metals can be made from aluminum, copper, bronze, nickel, brass, steel, stainless steel, nickel, and titanium.
The process used to create sintered metal involves three basic steps. First, the metal is made into a powder form by one of many methods. The most common technique, atomization, separates melted metal into small beads that are frozen into a solid form. In the second step, the powder is poured into a die and compacted at room temperature. Lastly, the metal mass is removed from the die and put into a furnace. This part of the process, called sintering, fuses the metal particles together without melting them.
The entire process that produces sintered metal is called powder metallurgy. It is used for manufacturing various parts because it produces a minimal amount of waste. In fact, approximately 97% of the original material ends up in the finished parts.