Powder Metallurgy & Sintered Parts worked example

Infiltration Material Usage at 61% infiltration transfer efficiency: a worked example

Here is what the math looks like when conditions slip. We hold every other input steady and drop infiltration transfer efficiency to 61%, then walk the calculation through step by step. Infiltration material usage is the amount of copper (or other) infiltrant you must load to fill the interconnected porosity of iron-based sintered parts, accounting for the fraction that does not actually wick into the part.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Sintered parts to infiltrate: 500 units (held at the documented default)
  • Infiltrant slug mass per part: 0.08 units (held at the documented default)
  • Infiltration transfer efficiency: 61 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 85)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Required infiltration material usage = covered amount × use per unit ÷ transfer efficiency.
  • Required quantity works out to 65.57 units at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Theoretical amount works out to 40 units at these inputs.
  • Loss allowance works out to 25.57 units at these inputs.
  • Efficiency works out to 61 % at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where infiltration transfer efficiency sits at 85% and the headline result is 47.06 units, this scenario comes in 39.34% above the baseline at 65.57 units.
  • The practical read: the gap between this scenario and the baseline is entirely attributable to infiltration transfer efficiency, so recovering it is worth quantifying in dollars before considering equipment or staffing changes. It assumes one efficiency figure and does not account for part-to-part porosity scatter, so wide density variation across a batch will spread real usage around this estimate.

Results at a glance

  • Required quantity: 65.57 units (headline result)
  • Theoretical amount: 40 units
  • Loss allowance: 25.57 units
  • Efficiency: 61 %

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Infiltration Material Usage calculator, set infiltration transfer efficiency to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.