Properties of Precipitation Hardening 17-4 PH Stainless Steel Manufactured by Powder Metallurgy Technology

Abstract

Alloys from austenitic and ferritic stainless steel found to be satisfactory for a great many applications. However, for applications that require higher levels of strength and hardness from the martensitic grades are frequently specified. Martensitic stainless steels offer significantly higher strengths but have to low ductility. For this reason for application where high levels of strength and a moderate ductility is required, the precipitation strengthened stainless steels are often considered. One of the most popular alloy of this kind of stainless steel is 17-4 PH. The aim of the present paper was to examined the influence the process parameters in conventional powder metallurgy processing on the mechanical properties of the 17-4 PH alloy in both as-sintered and heat treated conditions. In was found that temperature of aged is a very sensitive parameter for obtained high strength and acceptable ductility.