Over the past year and a half, I have been processing and distributing the MTR's or Material Test Reports here at Atlas Bronze. I must say that when I first took on the job I was a little apprehensive. I heard stories about these people who falsified Certs and some of them even wound up in jail. (see my post , Who knew you could go to jail!!! ) Needless to say, there was a bit of trepidation on my part taking up this new job.
Well, since I had no intention of falsifying any documentation anytime in my life... I new I was safe and took on the challenge. I must say that it has taught me alot. After some time now, I can look at another "distributor's" C of C or Chemical Cert and be able to tell what mill produced the material. You would be surprised the information you can learn just from reading an MTR.
I could literally go on and on about MTR's forever....and by no means am I an expert (there is just so much to say and learn from) So, I figured I'd start with the one material / product where customers seemed to become the most confused - SAE 841 Sintered Bronze
Now if some of you have any thoughts to add please feel free to add your comments below.
Recently I had a customer who purchased some SAE 841 Sintered Bronze material from us and requested Certs with this material. So when it came time to forwarding them the Certs she came back to me, puzzled, asking...."On your paperwork, do you have anything that indicates the lot #?". I then replied with my standard reply. After I did this I decided....I must post this on the blog, I get this question so often with Sintered products, hopefully it will help.
MATERIAL: SAE 841, Sintered Bronze
QUESTION: "On your paperwork (Certs), do you have anything that indicates the lot #?"
ANSWER:
Unlike other bronze materials Powdered Metal (841 Sintered Bronze) is not melted nor heat traceable, so therefore there will be not be a LOT# or HEAT#:
Powder metallurgy is the process of blending fine powdered materials, pressing them into a desired shape (compacting), and then heating the compressed material in a controlled atmosphere to bond the material (sintering). The powder metallurgy process generally consists of four basic steps: (1) powder manufacture, (2) powder blending,(3) compacting, (4) sintering.
Compacting is generally performed at room temperature, and the elevated-temperature process of sintering is usually conducted at atmospheric pressure. Optional secondary processing often follows to obtain special properties or enhanced precision.
I have found a video that might help visualize the process...see below:
I hope you all found this helpful and as always feel free to leave comments or questions and if I can't answer them, I'll definitely find someone who can.
Blessings! Ruth
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