The question of electrification
| contents | news | advertisers | events | website | e-newsletter |
An industry old-timer’s view on the question of vehicle electrification, misleading messaging and the status of PM Dr Cesar Molins, CEO of Powder Metallurgy parts producer AMES Group, former president of the European Powder Metallurgy Association (EPMA), and selfdescribed ‘industry old timer’, has seen first-hand the evolution of the modern PM industry. But it is now an industry with an unclear future as its primary market, the automotive industry, navigates a path through rapid technological change driven on by seemingly contradictory and confused political messaging. But in Molins’ opinion, while the course may be set towards an electrified future, the end of the ICE is further away than we think.
The world of Powder Metallurgy has been in constant evolution since the technology’s first appearance in the industrial world in the 1920s, and, in particular, with growing applications in the automotive sector in the 1950s and 1960s and beyond. New powder compositions and morphologies; new atomising technologies; new lubricants; new alloying, prediffusion or bonding methods for the powders’ components; new sintering conditions, atmospheres and furnaces; new shaping technologies, from press & sinter PM to Cold Isostatic Pressing (CIP), Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP), Metal Injection Moulding (MIM), and, finally, metal Additive Manufacturing; different and evolving shaping machines; post-processing technologies, and much more. Indeed, the world of PM is very complex, and exciting to be a part of from a technological viewpoint. The applications of PM products have also experienced significant evolution, from the most traditional
© 2021 Inovar Communications Ltd
applications of hardmetals (cemented carbides), self-lubricated bearings and structural mechanical parts to high-performance PM components for aerospace, oil/gas exploration, medical, fuel cells, heat sinks, soft-magnetic composites (SMCs)
and other very special functional materials applications – but never before has the future of PM been so unclear as in recent years, with the appearance of mass-produced electric cars and the very strong pressure on decarbonisation,
Fig. 1 Dr Cesar Molins, CEO of AMES Group
Autumn/Fall 2021
Powder Metallurgy Review
81