Monday, June 25, 2012

Powdered Metals: a Time-Honored Industry with a Long Future Ahead


The time-honored technique of powder metallurgy has been around in one form or another since as far back as 3000 B.C. in ancient Egypt, and has been widely in service since the late 19th century when mass producing low-cost, high-endurance parts, pieces, and components. You’ll find powdered metal used in any number of applications and industries: automotive, defense, medical, and maritime, to name a few. By intensively heating a powdered metal – or a corresponding powdered alloy – up to its near melting point, you can do away with many needless complexities as far as assembly and sub-assembly; you can shape the metal to the dimensions roughly desired in the final, finished part. Beyond this acknowledged flexibility, the powdering process leaves a good finish upon cooling, is well-proven to be cost effective in comparison with other types of metallurgy, and is ideal for high-volume production runs.

Since conveyor belt technology is equally suited for high-volume production runs, it only stands to reason that our Furnace Belt meshes are used commonly by the powdered metal industry. With a variety of flat, tightly-woven conveyor meshes with high, built-in heat-resistance, our conveyor belts are ideal for mass producing powdered metal parts as needed. With cost-cutting an ever-growing concern in the fabrication of metal parts, we can only anticipate that this longstanding metallurgical process has a long and profitable future ahead of itself. We know that our signature 304 stainless steel, high carbon steel, and low carbon galvanized steel meshes will leave other conveyor belts behind in their tracks.