The metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF) is a "not-for-profit association" formed by the powder metallurgy industry to advance the interests of the metal powder producing and consuming industries.
The Federation is composed of six trade associations that are concerned with some aspect of powder metallurgy, metal powders, or particulate materials.
Throughout its long history, MPIF has been a champion of this innovative technology, providing our member companies with a long list of services that help advance the art and science of powder metallurgy while promoting its benefits to prospective end users.
MPIF traces its roots to the closing days of World War II when a group of entrepreneurs engaged in the still-fledgling industry involved in making parts from metal powder were faced with a looming crisis.
With the close of the war, the industry—which until then had consisted primarily of self-lubricating bearings—would be saddled with a severe surplus production capacity that had been geared up for the war effort. That is, unless the industry could expand its existing markets and develop new ones in what was sure to be a period of economic boom as GIs came home to resume life as consumers.
To promote the technology to a then-skeptical engineering community, to develop the essential standards and testing methods customers would demand, and to obtain crucial and reliable statistical data about the vitality of the industry and its future prospects, the industry would need to set aside differences and speak with single voice. So these pioneers arrived at a momentous decision: they would form a trade association.
