Table 3 Properties of commercial grades of copper powder produced by the oxide reduction process

Copper Chemical properties, % Physical properties Compacted properties

Tin Graphite Lubricant Hydrogen Acid Apparent Hall flow Tyler sieve analysis, % Green Green strength, MPa (psi), at:
loss insolubles density, rate, s/50 density,
g/cm3 g g/cm3
+100 +150 +200 +325 -325 165 MPa (12 6.30 g/cm3
tsi)

99.53 ... ... ... 0.23 0.04 2.99 23 0.3 11.1 26.7 24.1 37.8 6.04 6.15 (890) ...

99.64 ... ... ... 0.24 0.03 2.78 24 ... 0.6 8.7 34.1 56.6 5.95 7.85 (1140)(a) ...

99.62 ... ... ... 0.26 0.03 2.71 27 ... 0.3 5.7 32.2 61.8 5.95 9.3 (1350)(a) ...

99.36 ... ... ... 0.39 0.12 1.56 ... 0.1 1.0 4.9 12.8 81.2 5.79 21.4 (3100)(a) ...

99.25 ... ... ... 0.30 0.02 2.63 30 0.08 7.0 13.3 16.0 63.7 ... ... 8.3
(1200)(a)

90 10 ... 0.75 ... ... 3.23 30.6 0.0 1.4 9.0 32.6 57.0 6.32 ... 3.80 (550)

88.5 10 0.5 0.80 ... ... 3.25 12(b) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3.6 (525)

(a) Measured with die wall lubricant only.

(b) Carney flow

Copper Alloy Powders

Alloy powders are available in various compositions, including brasses, nickel silvers, tin bronzes, aluminum bronzes,
and beryllium bronzes. Alloy powders are produced by one of two methods:

• Preblending copper powders with other elemental powders such as tin, zinc, or nickel
• Prealloying during powder production

Preblending. Preblended powders are mixtures of selected compositions, with or without lubricant, that form the
desired alloy during sintering. The most common P/M copper alloy made with preblended powders is tin bronze used in
self-lubricating bearings. Typical bronze composition is 90Cu-10Sn, often containing up to 1.5% graphite. Some "dilute"
bronze bearings contain various amounts of iron replacing some of the copper and tin. Copper-lead and steel-backed
copper-lead-tin materials, used to replace solid bronze bearings, also use preblended powders because lead is virtually
insoluble in copper and cannot be prealloyed. Friction materials used in brakes and clutches contain disparate materials
such as copper with several other components including lead, tin, iron, graphite, molybdenum disulfide, oxides, etc. These
can only be made using preblended powders.

Prealloying. Prealloyed powders are generally produced by melting the constituents to form a homogeneous alloy and
atomizing the alloy melt by the methods similar to those used for the production of copper powder. They can also be
produced by sintering preblended powders and grinding the materials to attain the desired powder characteristics.

Brass and Nickel Silver. Air atomization is generally used for making prealloyed powders of brass and nickel silver
for use in high-density (>7.0 g/cm3) components. The low-surface tension of the molten alloys of these compositions
renders the particle shape sufficiently irregular to make the powders compactible (Fig. 3). Reduction of oxides is not
necessary for the standard P/M grades of brass and nickel-silver powders.

Fig. 3 Prealloyed air-atomized, nickel-silver powder (63Cu-18Ni-17Zn-2Pb). 165×

Commercial prealloyed brass and nickel-silver powders are available in leaded and nonleaded compositions. Commercial
brass alloys range from 90Cu-10Zn to 65Cu-35Zn. Leaded versions of 80Cu-20Zn and 70Cu-30Zn are most commonly
used for the manufacture of sintered structural parts that may require secondary machining operations. The only
commercially available nickel-silver powder has a nominal composition of 65Cu-18Ni-17Zn, which is modified by
addition of lead when improved machinability is required.

Bronze. Prealloyed bronze powders are not used widely for structural parts fabrication because their modular particle
form and high apparent density result in low green strength. However, blends of such powders with irregular copper
powders and phosphorus-copper yield sintered parts with good mechanical properties.

Table 4 shows typical properties of commercial grades of prealloyed brass, bronze, and nickel-silver powders.