Composite heavy-duty mechanism element and method of making the same

Abstract

Abstract A composite mechanism element, such as a bevel pinion (FIGS. 1 to 6 inclusive), or the inner race of a tapered roller bearing (FIGS. 7 to 10 inclusive and 16) has its working or load-bearing portion or portions composed of sintered powdered highperformance alloy while its supporting portion not subjected to concentrated or heavy loads, is made of a base metal, such as sintered powdered iron. The toothed outer load-bearing portion of the composite bevel pinion (FIG. 6) and the hollow frusto-conical inner supporting portion (FIGS. 10 to 15) are separately briquetted from high performance alloy powder and low performance metal powder respectively and separately sintered after which the low performance inner supporting portion is pressed into the high performance toothed outer portion so as to be inseparably secured thereto. In the inner race (FIG. 15) of the composite tapered roller bearing (FIG. 16) the low-performance and high-performance portions of the inner race are separately compacted in dies in a briquetting press to form briquettes which are separately sintered and thereafter are pressed together in an assembling operation which causes the high performance and low performance portions of each race to be inseparably secured to one another. The composite outer race is formed by arranging base metal powder and high performance alloy powder in abutting zones in an annular cavity of a briquetting press die and compressing them to form a composite briquette which is then sintered and afterward deformed in a forging die into its final annular shape. The resulting composite sintered powdered mechanism elements are of much lower material cost than corresponding mechanism elements formed of high performance alloy throughout yet perform satisfactorily and have sufficient strength and durability for most purposes. The tapered roller bearing races (FIG. 9) or the bevel pinion (FIG. 15) may be used as they are if of satisfactory density for their intended uses, or they may be further densified by being subjected to an additional hot forging operation with the article sintered thereafter if deemed necessary.

Inventors

• 👤 William M Dunn
• 👤 Myron C Sarnes

Bibliographic Details