Introduction

Abstract

The manufacture of machine parts by powder metallurgy processes and their application has an irreplaceable role in this continually evolving industry, particularly in the automotive industry. By the diversity of methods and iron-based materials powder metallurgy makes it possible to achieve the properties of parts that meet demanding requirements for strength, toughness and other parameters only in the sintered-porous state, in some cases also with appropriate heat treatment. To achieve these properties of the parts, sintered steels are alloyed with larger amounts of alloying elements (this trend will also continue in future), in some standardized steels with up to {\textasciitilde}10{\%}, which is due to porosity and partly due to the heterogeneity of the structure of sintered steels compared with conventional steels.