C. Selcuk
Published: 2013-08-31
Total Pages: 25
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Powder metallurgy (PM) manufacture of parts is one of the most energy and material efficient forms of net-shape production, particularly, for automotive industry. PM allows repeatable mass production which makes it unique. However, it is well known that the quality of sintered parts can be variable. There can be typically around a 5% scrap rate in existing PM manufacturing lines. Current efforts are being made to develop non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques that will allow inspection of PM parts, notably sintered ones ideally in line with production to increase the quality of output batch and reduce scrap, as much as possible. This chapter presents an overview of non-destructive evaluation methods for PM components. It also seeks to capture latest NDT strategies such as digital radiography (DR) and identify apparent technology gaps in NDT of PM parts, in terms of applicability issues, with an emphasis on offering solutions to detection problems. It also seeks to highlight future work.