Powder technology of metal materials ~ Iron powder

Iron powder is one of the “long-seller” material because it has been used since B. C. 300. Iron powder is mainly used for powder metallurgy in recent years. On the other hands, it is also used for the functional applications by using chemical reaction, such as body warmer, deoxidant and agricultural application. There are the several methods to produce iron powder, and reduced and water atomized iron powders are mainly used for the powder metallurgy due to their good compactibilities. In this paper, the details of production process of iron powders containing alloyed steel powders in JFE steel, which produces both reduced and water atomized iron powders, are described. In addition, the powder characteristics of these two kinds of iron powders are also described. The expansion of functional applications such as additive manufacturing process or magnetic cores is expected in the future, thus additional improvement of iron powders quality will be required. ©2021 Japan Society of Powder and Powder Metallurgy