Patent 7473295 was granted and assigned to Höganäs AB on January, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The invention concerns a stainless steel powder comprising at least 10% chromium by weight. The powder further comprises vanadium in an amount of at least 4 times the amount of carbon and nitrogen. Preferably the steel powder comprises 10-30% chromium, 0.1-1% vanadium, 0.5-1.5% silicon, at least 0.1% carbon and at least 0.07% nitrogen. The invention also concerns a powder metallurgical composition containing said steel powder, a process for preparing and a compacted and sintered part made of said composition.