Federal-Mogul has developed a new material for valve seat inserts that helps manufacturers meet the durability demands of engine downsizing and alternative or high-octane blended fuels.
The company says its lean tool steel powder metal is more efficient to machine than conventional alloys, allowing faster throughput and improved productivity on customers' engine cylinder head production lines.
Downsized, highly-loaded and alternative-fuelled engines run at higher temperatures and higher loads, placing greater demands on the valvetrain and particularly on the valve seat insert.
Federal-Mogul explains that guaranteeing hardness and resistance to deformation and wear at elevated temperatures usually requires tool steel grade alloys, containing relatively high amounts of costly molybdenum and tungsten.
Its new lean tool steel increases chromium in the mix, adding cost-effective carbides to the alloy to create a multiple-phase composite microstructure.
The resulting material produces valve seat inserts with the same wear resistance as concentrated tool steel powders, but with greatly increased machinability.
