A Gasoline Atomization Primer

If you’re searching for consistent high quality titanium powder for your additive manufacturing process, the difficulty may not be with the powder itself, but with the process used to supply it.

In our sequence, «A Clear Ti,» we’ll look at key sources of contamination for titanium and smoore tech different pre-alloyed, fuel atomized, spherical powders. Make no mistake: clean issues. Cross-contamination disrupts components manufacturing in two key ways:

1. Performance — If a part goes to fail it would at all times be at the purpose where contamination is present.2. Process Predictability — Much more importantly, suppliers should anticipate and alleviate contamination at the supply or the powder provide can grow to be unpredictable which may price you money and time, and probably customers.

Step one in understanding powder contamination risks is understanding the process used to supply it. We’ve made it as simple as doable on this temporary primer.

Four Steps in Fuel Atomization

Gas atomization is a sturdy expertise for creating pure, free-flowing, pre-alloyed steel powder particles together with titanium powders. First, the uncooked material is ready for atomization in a plasma arc melter. This unit melts the powder into lengthy bars or electrodes so they are often fed into the atomizer.

The electrode is positioned within the atomizer and heated until molten steel drips off the top of the electrode till all but the top of the electrode is consumed. As the molten metallic drips into the atomizer tower it’s met by a stream of excessive-strain, inert gasoline, typically argon or nitrogen.

The collision breaks the stream into into spherical powder particles that solidify in flight. The particles have the same chemistry as the molten stream, therefore the term pre-alloyed.

Four Advantages of Gasoline Atomization

While it is essential to know and handle contamination threat so as to make sure constant powder high quality, gasoline atomization presents some essential advantages over different pre-alloyed particle manufacturing:

1. Chemistry Control: Gasoline atomization produces very pure powders that assist extremely tight chemistry tolerances. That means they can be custom-made to fulfill stringent utility requirements. 2. Powder Morphology: Gas atomized powders are spherically formed. 3. Vast Particle Measurement Distribution (PSD): A large PSD permits for prime packing density, which maximizes the quantity of powder in a given quantity. As a result of they’re free flowing they are ideal for additive manufacturing functions where powder movement is crucial. 4. Highly Versatile Capability: Fuel atomizers can produce a few pounds to several tons in a single heat with equal ease.

Want to be taught more gas atomization? Check out our infographic and obtain our whitepaper.