Powder metal's most innovative designs

Petaluma, Calif., and its customer Palo Alto, Calif., won MIM grand prize honors for a high-compression jaw used in a device for laparoscopic vessel fusion. Top and bottom jaws, an anchor, and an I-beam are made of 17-4PH metal powders sintered to densities of over 7.6 gm/cm3. The parts sport thin walls and highly complex geometries that would be difficult to produce economically by other methods. The I-beam is the cutting mechanism. High compression is maintained as the blade advances from the proximal to distal end of the jaw. The system also incorporates smart electro-technology to rapidly fuse vessels without thermal effects. The Ferrous grand prize went to Commerce, Calif., for a four-part gear assembly. The armature, rotor blank, bearing, and pinion gear operate in a motor drive for automatic minivan sliding doors. The parts have a density of 7.0 gm/cm3, an ultimate tensile strength of 45 kpsi, and a yield strength of 32 kpsi. They are made from a P/M phosphorous iron alloy and they are net shape, except for the rotor that needs a turning operation on the hub. Glendale Heights, Ill., took Stainless Steel grand-prize honors for a complex pump latch made for New Richmond, Wis. The 316 stainless-steel latch attaches to a door handle on a medical infusion pump. It has a density of 6.7 gm/cm3, an 11.5% elongation, and ultimate tensile and yield strengths of 65 and 42 kpsi, respectively. Secondary operations are limited to deburring, tempering, glass-bead finishing, and tapping one hole. The P/M latch replaces a machined die-cast handle that attached to a stainless-steel latch with dowel pins and screws. from Italy took Overseas grand prize accolades for a transmission used in a portable hedge cutter. The six P/M parts (main gear with 51 teeth, two connecting rods, an inner part, spacer, and valve)