High-temperature sintering: Cost analysis

In the wake of PM2TEC2004, it appears that high-temperature sintering is on the verge of a major growth step in press-and-sinter parts fabrication. A common concern with this technology is cost. Experience suggests that the P/M industry brands high-temperature sintering as too costly, without a quantitative understanding of costs and commercial advantages. To this end, a simple but realistic cost analysis of high-temperature sintering is presented. It is concluded that the cost/lb. is in the range of 20%-25% of the total cost, excluding secondary operations. Given the market value of the high-performance engineered products resulting from this technology, this cost component should be recoverable.