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Powder Metallurgy Industry Roadmap

The PM Industry Roadmap was originally created in 2001. The then titled PM Industry Vision and Technology Roadmap is a document that defined the vision for the industry, a view of future customer and market expectations, the goals designed to meet those expectations, and proposed a technology roadmap that was to serve as a detailed research agenda.

The PM industry's growth has been facilitated by addressing the technology challenges identified in the PM Industry Vision and Technology Roadmap, which was originally published by the Metal Powder Industries Federation in 2001 and updated in 2012. Since 2012, the PM industry has made significant progress in the processing of lean ferrous alloys, aluminum, titanium, magnesium, and metal matrix composites. Component densities continue to rise with improvements in powders, lubricants, tooling, warm compaction, high-tonnage compaction presses, and sintering technology. The most visible advance since the 2012 update is the rapid emergence of metal AM, but MIM has also grown significantly, as it has advanced in material options, process control, and standardization. These material and process developments have enabled new PM applications, such as variable valve timing sprockets, electronic power steering pulleys, turbocharger vanes, and jet engine fuel nozzles.

Download the 2017 PM Industry Roadmap


2017 Roadmap

Due to the significant advancements over the past five years, the PM industry came together again in 2016–2017 to assess and update the Technology Roadmap. This 2017 update reviews current and future demands of key markets and identifies the technical barriers, challenges, opportunities, and priorities that will drive the PM industry's continued growth. The main topics identified are:

  • High-density PM components
  • Processing of lightweight materials
  • Improvements in precision, accuracy, and variation control
  • Metal AM

This update also reviews the achievements made by the PM industry between 2012 and 2017, provides an overview of the PM industry, and describes the four main categories of PM processes. The original 2001 Technology Roadmap is still valid and relevant. It should continue to serve as a reference for the PM industry's long-term vision to be the preferred source of net-shaped metalbased components; however, this 2017 update is expected to help guide the development of the PM industry over the next few years.