A powder metal gear is a type of gear manufactured using powder metallurgy. This process involves compacting powdered metal into a desired shape using precision tooling and compaction presses, followed by sintering, which is a heat treatment that fuses the particles together. Powder metal gears can be produced to near-net-shape or even net shape, meaning they require little to no secondary machining operations. This method is efficient and cost-effective, especially for complex gear geometries, and results in faster production times compared to traditional machining methods.

Tight Tolerances and Dimensional Accuracy: Powder metallurgy allows for tight tolerances, dimensional accuracy, and consistency, accommodating all production volume requirements.
Cost-Effectiveness: High material utilization makes powdered metal a cost-effective choice. Producing components to tight tolerances often eliminates or reduces the need for additional operations, saving both time and costs.
Eco-Friendly Process: Powdered metal is a green process with low energy usage and minimal scrap, making it more economical than standard machining, casting, or other metal-forming technologies.
Optimized Performance: Material selection for gears allows for optimization of the component’s performance for its intended application with little variation in the manufacturing process.

Lower Tool Cost

Consistent Reproducibility

Tight Tolerances

Cost-Efficiency

All-Volume Capability

Design Flexibility

Common Materials for Gear Production:

Iron-Nickel and Nickel Steel: Admixtures of elemental iron, nickel, and graphite (when required) powders. These materials provide heat-treatable structural parts with strength, wear resistance, and impact properties.
Prealloyed Steel: Developed from pre-alloyed low-alloy steel powders with nickel, molybdenum, manganese, and chromium as alloying elements. Used for components requiring heat treatment to increase strength and wear resistance.
Hybrid Low-Alloy Steel and Diffusion-Alloyed Steel: Other powders used for specific applications.

Part Design Evaluation

Collaborative review of your new part design or an evaluation of a potential conversion to powder metal for an existing part

Material Selection

Selecting the best powder or powder blend for durability, reliability, and accuracy

Compaction

Compacting the metal powder to precise specifications under controlled pressure

Sintering

Heating or "Sintering" to create a permanent form

At Atlas, our team of skilled engineers brings extensive industry experience and knowledge to guide you through every stage of your structural component requirements. From weight to shape, our flexibility is our expertise. We design and manufacture components with the following specifications:

Weight: 453.59 grams (1 lb) to 1360.78 grams (3 lbs)
Diameter: 0.32 cm (0.125”) to 12.7 cm (5”)
Length: 0.635 cm (0.25”) to 3.81 cm (1.5”)
Shapes: Structural, spherical, flanged

Our advanced molding, sintering, and sizing capabilities, combined with a robust quality metric system, enable us to handle parts of all sizes and complexities. Powdered metallurgy, an economical and eco-friendly manufacturing option, minimizes material waste and reduces costs.