Project

Nickel frEe poWders for high perforMAnce compoNents

Project N°19028

Duration: 24 months

Funded under: EIT Raw Materials Upscaling scheme

Funding Theme: Substitution of critical and toxic materials in products and for optimized performance

Powder Metallurgy (PM) is the technology of producing metallic materials and components from powders. The technology offers many advantages (e.g. design freedom, energy saving, reduction of raw material consumption, cost savings, etc.) that make it suitable for mechanical component production. Up to now, high performance components have been produced using traditional metal sintering powders containing Nickel (Ni). However, in the last few years the cost of nickel-containing powders has increased. Because of Nickel carcinogenicity, price evolution and supply risks, the costs relating to manufacture and handle these powders has increased by 50% with respect to Nickel-free powders (NFP). To overcome these disadvantages, Höganäs has developed innovative Nickel-free powders, that have been validated in laboratory environment. The lab testing phase demonstrated that NFP can replace Nickel-containing powders in the manufacturing of high performance components.

NEWMAN aims to push the exploitation of NFP powders by validating and demonstrating their performance in industrial environment and promoting communication, dissemination and training actions to raise awareness about NPF benefits among researchers, designers and PM manufacturers to boost the transition from the use traditional powders with Nickel. The main goal of NEWMAN project is to prove that NFP can be used for the large-scale production of high performance components in industrial environment with stringent requirements as in the automotive and optical measurement fields. This objective will be reached by:

• Defining the Go to Market Strategy to penetrate the powder metallurgy market (WP0);
• Managing the project tasks to connect the efforts of each partners (WP1);
• Communicating and disseminating the results of the project (WP2);
• Selecting the best powder compositions and optimizing the process parameters (WP3);
• Re-designing the components geometry (WP4);
• Producing (WP5) and thermally treating (WP6) the prototypes;
• Validating and demonstrating the prototypes performances (WP7);
• Demonstrating the higher sustainability of NFP with respect to traditional Nickel-containing powders (WP8).