PRODUCTION OF METAL FIBER MATERIALS AND DETERMINATION OF PORE SIZES

Abstract

The processing line and technology have been developed for producing metal materials from 316L steel fibers with diameters of 12 and 30 µm as sheets with a porosity of 50–80% and a thickness of 0.5–10.5 mm. Model concepts of geometric pore shape in sintered metal fiber materials were used to derive three dependences of the mean pore size of these materials on their porosity and the starting fiber diameter. Comparisons of the mean pore sizes determined experimentally with standard methods and calculated by Valeeva’s equations indicate that the results obtained by calculation are highly reliable. This allows predicting the properties of metal fiber materials with adequate accuracy without additional costs for the production of prototypes, process adjustments, and equipment for experimental determination of the mean pore size.