Abstract: To provide piston rings which are ductile, can be heavily thermally loaded, and are not attacked by corrosive residues occurring upon combustion of residual oil or other sulfur-containing heavy Diesel oils, a powder mixture is sintered in an isostatic hot-pressure sintering process in which a hard metal and a soft filler material are combined; in accordance with one embodiment, the base is a hard metal using nickel or cobalt-based alloys present in 40-80% by weight, the remainder filler which, for example, is unrefined or galvanically coated graphite; in a second embodiment, the base is a soft material such as a high-copper content bronze, and the filler is a nickel or cobalt-based alloy, with the base metal being present in 60-80%, the filler being the remainder (all percentages by weight).