Experimental and numerical analysis of marking approach for sintered light alloy components

The weight reduction of components is one of the most important topics in the automotive and the aircraft industry. Sintered light metal alloys combine a low specific weight with a production process with a high utilisation of material. This paper describes a process integrated marking approach for sintered components to protect them from being copied. Herein spherical particles are placed inside at predefined positions, and different materials are used for particles and powder. The readout of the marking is based on the different physical properties of these materials. Experiments to show the feasibility of the approach were carried out. Additionally a numerical simulation was used to predict the influence of the particles on the components density distribution.