In contrast to the subject to which this title eludes I doubt very much that anyone has ever really been afraid to ask anything about powder metallurgy except for one basic question: "What is it?" Not, "How do you do it?"
Powder metallurgy is at once a technology and an industry; the industry consisting of the increasing number of companies engaged in the practice of powder metallurgy technology. Powder metallurgy or "P/M" as it is more commonly referred to today, is also an ancient lost art, a rediscovered manufacturing process and a modern science. It's a way of making a solid piece of metal from powder without melting it. It's a way of combining metals with non-metals or combining elemental metals which are immiscible to create unique materials that combine the properties of all its constituents. It's a way to vary under precisely controlled conditions the specific gravity or density of a metal; a property normally considered fixed and immutable. It's a way of making a piece of metal appear solid yet be porous so it can function like a filter or a sponge. It's a way of making complex shapes of any metal or alloy quickly, in great numbers, and with high precision at low cost.