Sintered Mechanical Parts:
Performance & Precision for Industry.
Sintering, OPM expertise.
Sintered mechanical parts: Oloron sintering expertise.
Our added value: your strength.
Oloron Frittage offers metal powder-based components and systems that provide a sustainable competitive advantage. Our sintered metal components ensure long-term competitiveness. We guarantee product quality, meet our customers’ specifications, and reduce overall costs. As the French leader in sintering, we offer a wide range of technologies, including advanced production processes and standardized, automated production lines.
Providing our customers with the best service is our main objective, and we are committed to it. Our extensive production capabilities enable us to manufacture a wide range of products, and the applications for our sintered mechanical parts are varied, from small seat inserts to large gear rings used in engines and transmission systems.
How to manufacture custom sintered mechanical parts?
Sintering, a process derived from powder metallurgy, offers real advantages for the production of mechanical parts. Indeed, sintering makes it possible to produce parts in alloys specifically adapted to their applications and in a more economical way.
Sintering is a process that involves heating a part formed from metal powder to a temperature below its melting point in order to turn it into a solid part.
The different stages
in the sintering process.
Preparation of raw materials
At OPM, raw materials are prepared either by mixing different components (iron, graphite, copper, etc.) in-house or by purchasing premixes supplied by our European partners.
Since the specific characteristics of the powders have an impact on the sintering quality of the parts, we check that all our raw materials meet our requirements in terms of composition, grain size, density, and flowability. Density, thermal cycle, and composition are defined according to the characteristics and design of the desired products.
Powder compression
Once the powders have been qualified, we begin the first stage of our process: compression.
During this operation, the powdered material is fed by gravity into a tool whose axis is positioned vertically on mechanical or hydraulic presses. In order to agglomerate the metal powder, it is subjected to pressures of several hundred MPa. The part obtains sufficient mechanical strength to be handled with a few precautions.
Powder sintering
In order to give compressed products the expected mechanical properties, we apply heat treatment in our sintering furnaces under a protective atmosphere and at a temperature below the melting point of the main component.
This treatment uses high-temperature atomic diffusion to create sintering bridges between the metal grains, giving the products all their mechanical and dimensional properties. After sintering, Oloron Frittage’s mechanical parts have advantageous properties such as a relative density of up to 97% and a breaking strength of up to 1200 MPa.
Calibration
Calibration is carried out at room temperature and consists of inserting the sintered mechanical part into a specific tool, allowing for a greater or lesser degree of densification.
The purpose of this operation is to:
- obtain parts with very precise dimensions.
- improve mechanical characteristics.
- improve surface finish.
Secondary operations after sintering.
If necessary and depending on the sintered mechanical part to be obtained, the process may be supplemented by one of the following operations:
Deburring
To remove burrs, flashes, or contaminants hidden by an oxidation reaction, we use the deburring process.
Machining
For parts requiring very precise dimensions and/or complex geometry, we perform machining operations (drilling small holes, tapping, milling, turning, grinding).
Assembly
Other mechanical parts can be assembled onto your sintered parts by keying, press fitting, or overmolding.
Heat treatment
High-frequency induction treatment: localized treatment to increase hardness in areas subject to wear. Carbonitriding/Case hardening: the most commonly used treatment to increase the mechanical properties of materials.
Surface treatment
Water vapor treatment (TVE): Finished parts are placed in a 600°C oven into which water vapor is introduced. This causes the iron to oxidize, forming Fe3 04, which is very hard and highly adhesive. This process provides an economical solution to problems of sealing and coating adhesion (such as GEOMET).
Anti-corrosion coating – Lamellar zinc: when it is necessary to protect parts against corrosion, surface treatment should be considered. Lamellar zinc technology provides a high level of protection against corrosion and improves the service life of metals without the risk of hydrogen embrittlement. Anti-friction coating: coating deposit to reduce the coefficient of friction.
Washing
The purpose of washing is to remove particles in order to control cleanliness criteria.
Over 70 years of expertise.
Sintering: OPM’s added value.
A specialized sintering
plant in France
With a factory in Oloron Sainte-Marie, OPM has been offering expertise in the field of sintered metal parts since 1973.
An optimal environment for production and research with:
- a tooling workshop
- a post-processing environment
- a metrology laboratory
Our tooling workshop, equipped with wire and die-sinking EDM machines, enables us to produce tools with complex shapes or high-precision teeth. Complemented by machining centers, grinding machines, honing machines, and 3D inspection equipment, this workshop creates the compression, calibration, and inspection tools designed by the design office to produce parts according to customer specifications.
At OPM, we invest in improving our sintering processes
In order to better meet our customers’ increasingly demanding specifications, OPM has invested in the installation of a new furnace capable of sintering six different types of parts simultaneously under specific conditions (atmosphere and temperature).
In addition, thanks to a different approach to sintering conditions, we will reduce the electricity and gas consumption required to sinter 1 kg of parts by a factor of three. This investment brings new flexibility and competitiveness that we will put at the service of our customers.
Automation of sintering
processes
We are also investing in new automation and sintering furnace loading management cells. This project involves creating an autonomous cell that will manage the flow between the compression parts output and the loading/unloading of the sintering furnaces.
Thanks to AGVs (automated guided vehicles) and robotization of furnace loading, we will improve working conditions, production management, and inventory monitoring.
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