Effect of Surface Densification on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Powder Metallurgical Gears by Using a Surface Rolling Process

Powder metallurgy (PM) components are widely used in the auto industry due to the advantage of net-shape forming, low cost, and high efficiency. Still, usage of PM components is limited in the auto industry when encountering rigorous situations, like heavy load, due to lower strength, hardness, wear resistance, and other properties compared to wrought components due to the existence of massive pores in the PM components. In this study, through combining the powder metallurgy process and rolling process, the pores in the PM components were decreased and a homogenous densified layer was formed on the surface, which resulted in the enhancement of the strength, hardness, wear resistance, and other properties, which can expand its range of application. In this paper, we study the impact of different rolling feeds on the performance of the components’ surfaces. We found that with the increase of the rolling feed, the depth of the densified layer increased.