AL HOSN UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Engineering & Applied Sciences

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department
MEC 311

( Assignment)
(

FALL 2013

Prepared For:
Dr. M. Shemirani

Methods of Powder production

Gas atomisation

The most common method of powder production. Elemental feedstock is melted under
an air or inert gas blanket, or under vacuum. The chamber is then backfilled with gas to
force molten alloy through a nozzle where high velocity air, N, He or Ar gas impinges
onto the flowing melt and breaks it up. Powder is mostly spherical, with some
asymmetric particles and satellites present. A satellite is when a smaller particle sticks
to a larger one during solidification. Heat sizes range from 5kg to 3000kg. Size ranges
from 0 to 500 micron. Yield within 20-150 micron range varies from 10 to 50% of total.
Mostly used for Ni, Co and Fe alloys, also available for Ti and Al alloys.

Water atomisation
Similar to gas atomisation but water is employed as the atomising medium. Used mostly
for unreactive materials such as steels, it produces irregular shaped particles.

Plasma atomisation
A relatively new technique that produces high quality and extremely spherical powder.
Wire feedstock is fed into a plasma torch that with the aid of gases atomised the
powder. Size ranges from 0 200 micron. Limited to alloys that can be formed into a
wire feedstock.[1]

What can be made using power production?

Selective laser sintering (SLS)

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is an additive manufacturing (AM) technique that uses a laser as
the power source to sinter powdered material (typically metal), aiming the laser automatically at
points in space defined by a 3D model, binding the material together to create a solid structure. It is
similar to direct metal laser sintering (DMLS); the two are instantiations of the same concept but
differ in technical details. Selective laser melting (SLM) uses a comparable concept, but in SLM the
material is fully melted rather than sintered,[1] allowing different properties (crystal structure, porosity,
and so on). SLS (as well as the other mentioned AM techniques) is a relatively new technology that
so far has mainly been used for rapid prototyping and for low-volume production of component parts.
Production roles are expanding as the commercialization of AM technology improves.[2]

References
[1] http://www.lpwtechnology.com
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org