Warm powder compaction substitutes conventionally double pressed and double sintered synchroniser hubs

Abstract

Within a project supported by the European Union a consortium consisting of the companies Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability LBF, AMES, Miba, GKN, Federal Mogul, Höganäs, RWTH Aachen, Peugeot/Citroën and Fiat worked on the realisation of heavyduty gearbox components by warm powder compaction technology. In this paper, part of this work will be reported, namely the manufacturing of synchroniser hubs by this new technology. Until now these hubs were manufactured by the double pressing and double sintering route.

Based on service load measurements in a gearbox of a Peugeot 506, vehicle fatigue tests were carried out with conventionally and warm pressed hubs. The results of fatigue tests with hubs as well as the durability tests carried out in the gearboxes of Peugeot/Fiat revealed the same performance for both technologies. As a consequence, the hubs produced by warm powder compaction can substitute for the ones produced conventionally. Further, the new technology reveals economic advantages with regard to the powder price as well as production costs.