Mahsa Haghbin - Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Sadjad University of Technology,Mashhad, Iran
Saeed Kahrobaee - Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Sadjad University of Technology,Mashhad, Iran
Milad Hojati - Mashhad Powder Metallurgy Corporation, Research and Development Manager, Mashhad, Iran
Iman Ahadi Akhlaghi - Department of Electrical Engineering, Sadjad University of Technology, Mashhad, Iran

Variations in chemical composition is one of the most important parameters affecting mechanical and microstructural characteristics of powder metallurgy parts. Therefore, controlling the chemical composition, or in other words, checking the weight percentage of three important alloying elements, namely carbon, copper and phosphorus is an important issue in quality control process of these parts. Indeed, any changes in quantity of these alloying elements has a significant influence on microstructural features including phase fractions, morphology and porosity, which in turn will change hardness and strength of the parts. In the present paper, the potential of magnetic permeability as an output of nondestructive magnetic hysteresis loop method has been evaluated for characterizing microstructural and compositional variations of P/M parts. To produce variations in chemical composition, three groups of samples with different weight percentages of carbon (0-0.9 with a 0.1 step), copper (0-4.5 with a 0.5 step) and phosphorus (0-0.45 with a 0.05 step) were pressed and sintered.The results revealed that there are acceptable correlation coefficients (R2) for the relations of magnetic permeability and weight percentage of C, Cu and P. This proves the ability of the proposed nondestructive method to be used as an inspecting tool in mass production lines of the powder metallurgy parts.