Short Run / Prototype Sintered Bronze Bushing Solutions from National Bronze Mfg. Co.


Roseville, MI — National Bronze Mfg. Co., a leading manufacturer of bronze bushings, bearings, and machined components, is please to introduce a solution for customers in need of powdered metal or "sintered" bearings in short run or prototype quantities. The 100+ year old manufacturer describes both the problem many customers face as well as their customized solutions in the following expert from their company blog.



The powdered metallurgy process is a mass production process that can reduce costs to a level that can be startlingly low when compared to CNC machining.  An added benefit of the sintered metal bushing are the unique pores that are formed in the structure of the metal.  These pores can serve as a reservoir for lubricant, providing a passage to the bearing surface.  This unique feature adds the benefit of self-lubrication to many powdered metal bearings.  But what do you do when you want the self-lubricating properties of a powdered metal bushings but in quantities lower than a mass production run? Don't worry, there are still a couple options available for this situation, this article will outline what your options are.



Option # 1 Industry Standard Parts



Due to this difficult situation, the bronze bushing industry has developed a large line of industry standard sizes that can be used for a number of common applications.  Here at National Bronze Mfg. we manufacture these industry standards in the high volumes that lend to the P/M process and stock them in our warehouse.  This gives our customers the benefit of off the shelf availability as well as the low cost of a P/M product.



To make things even more convenient for our customers we developed the ecommerce site bronzebushings.com.  This site allows visitors to easily shop for thousands of industry standard bronze bushings that are all available for quick shipment and available to purchase in very low quantities.  For more information on bronzebushings.com click the banner below.



Option #2 Sintered Bronze Bar Stock



Industry standard sizes are great if your bushing falls within one of the standard sizes, but what if you bushing doesn't meet those requirements. How do you get a custom powdered metal bushing in a short run or prototype quantity?  This is the reason for the development of sintered bronze bar stock.  This bar stock is manufactured via the P/M process in 6-1/2” lengths.  This is the maximum length that P/M presses can compact the bar stock while keeping the required density throughout the entire bar.  This bar stock is impregnated with oil the same way many of the sintered bronze bushings are.  Like other bronze bar stock it can be machined to produce a custom sintered bronze bushing.  The trade off with this process is that the additional machining adds to the cost of the bushing, but for lower quantities this a great solution. 



We stock a variety of sizes of sintered bronze bar stock here at National Bronze Mfg. and offer our customers either the bar stock itself or a customer bushing completely machined from the bar stock.  The choice is up to you, depending on your capabilities.  This process is generally much faster than the standard lead time for production runs of P/M bushings.

 

We offer bar stock and custom bushings in standard SAE 841 Oil Impregnated Bronze, SAE 863 Sintered Iron-Copper, and Dri-Plane dry lubricated high temperature bronze.  The Sintered bronze bars are produced to ASTM standards and have stock on the ID and OD to permit machining to the nominal dimension desired.



More information on Powder Metal Bronze Bearings can be found on National Bronze Manufacturing's company website via the link below:



http://www.nationalbronze.com/oil-impregnated-bearings.php



About National Bronze Mfg. Co.



National Bronze Mfg. is a leading manufacturer and supplier of bronze based products. Since 1911 National Bronze Mfg. has been one the largest manufacturers of bronze bushings, bearings, and other industrial components. National Bronze Mfg. is also a full metal service center supplying bronze, brass, and copper bar stock to manufacturers worldwide. With an expertise in copper alloy based product National Bronze Mfg. services customers in a wide variety of industries.



http://www.nationalbronze.com/


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