Fabrication of Pinion Gear for PowerWindow of a Car through Powder Metallurgy Technique

Powder Metallurgy (P/M) is a long standing business that grew at a rapid rate
from the 1980s. Much of its growth derived from powder-based parts replacing
castings, forgings, and machined parts. The industry demonstrated that it could meet
the needs of manufacturers but at a lower cost. More than 73% of all P/M parts are
sold to the automotive industry. P/M is useful in making parts that have irregular
curves, or recesses that are hard to machine. It is suitable for high volume production
with very little wastage of material. Secondary machining is virtually eliminated.
Typical parts that can be made with this process include cams, ratchets, sprockets,
sintered bronze and iron bearings (impregnated with oil) and carbide tool tips. P/M
could potentially become an industry with saturated markets and grow mainly by
acquisition or increasing market share. Though P/M technology has been widely used
in automotive industry in many countries such as the United States, this technique is
still new and not yet developed in Malaysia. Thus, this project is carried out to
fabricate pinion gear for power window of car through P/M technique. The aim of this
project is to optimize the P/M technologies so that it can be implemented in Malaysian
automotive industry in future. The scope of works covers literature review, copy
drawing of existing pinion gear, fabricate die and mould of pinion gear, fabricate gears
using P/M, conduct laboratory test and communicate the findings.