Powder metallurgy in aerospace – fundamentals of pm processes and examples of applications

Abstract

Powder Metallurgy (PM) is one of the technologies that are going to play an important role in manufacturing in all sectors in the future, including aerospace, as it can combine the ease of alloying with net shape capabilities, freedom of design and high performance. Over the years, several different processes have established, each with distinctive features, using dedicated metal powders, and deliv-ering materials that rival the properties of conventionally produced ones. The portfolio of available compositions, properties and part shapes is constantly increasing and penetration in many sectors, including automotive and aerospace, is also deeper year by year. Especially Additive Manufacturing, the latest big development in powder metallurgy, is attractive because of the unprecedented pos-sibilities of weight optimization to obtain at the same time a lower mass and outstanding performance. In this review, a number of examples of applications in aerospace taken from the available literature are shown.