Defective parts database opened to Powder Metallurgy community
The lack of an adequate inspection system in PM part manufacturing has important implications from the point of view of quality assurance, since it increases the design costs and the time of a tool set for a new product.
The MFKK Invention and Research Centre Services based in Budapest, Hungary, is coordinating a project called SINTEST to develop a highly effective and cost-efficient in-situ system that can detect deficiencies in sintered parts based on ultrasonic technology. MFKK is additionally building up a database allowing PM part producers to contribute their own data on defects found in PM parts which will be incorporated into an on-line database.
Dr Andras Bulkai, project coordinator, stated that companies which contributed to the database would also have free access to it, and in this way it is intended to produce a large and unique database that could be used to improve the quality of PM parts. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010.
