Present and Future of Powder Metallurgy in Brazil

Abstract

The industrialization of Brazil is relatively recent; modern Brazilian industry is not more than ten years old. As a consequence, the technique of manufacturing parts from metal powders is also very recent. The powder metallurgy industry was established in 1954, and its first production began in 1956. Today, powder metallurgy products are manufactured by several Brazilian companies. Bronze and iron porous bearings, bronze filters, iron and steel structural parts, tungsten carbide of all classes and for all applications, electric sintered contacts and sintered friction disks are some of the parts fabricated. The automobile industry is mainly responsible for this progress and development. On the other hand, the expansion of steel-production facilities will result in the growth of the carbide industry. The techniques used by the Brazilian plants depend on the origin of the respective plants. In the carbide field, the companies have connections with American, English, Swedish, German, and French organizations. Since the users of this product also have connections with foreign concerns, a great variety of specifications and grades must be fabricated to meet the demands of customers. This situation, plus the still relatively low consumption capacity of the Brazilian market, requires additional effort from the local manufacturers to face strong competition and to meet numerous specifications. Powder metallurgy research is conducted in some industries mainly for adaptation of the original technique to local conditions, as well as in some of the technical institutes. Important work is also being done in the nuclear field, through the production of briquettes of UO2 for use as nuclear fuel in reactors at the Institute of Atomic Energy of Sao Paulo.