Metal Alloy Powder Atomiser

Description

The main scope of this equipment is to provide the MACH1 AM Laboratories at Swansea University with the capability of making small batches of metal alloy powders for use in various additive manufacturing (AM) and powder metallurgical (PM) processes. The system should be able to produce a range of powder alloys (reactive and non-reactive), with low to high melting temperatures. The equipment must be able to produce powder particles which are highly spherical, with controllable size distributions suitable for a range of AM processes, particularly producing nominal particle size distributions (PSD) around a 30-50µm median suitable for Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) also known as Selective Laser Melting (SLM). The yield of the equipment should allow the comfortable production over a working week of over 0.6kg in the LPBF nominal size, and a smaller quantity (e.g., 100-200g) of smaller PSD (15-22µm) and larger PSD (90-100+ µm), suitable for other AM/PM processes. It is important that the equipment is capable to reliably produce standard alloys for Powder Bed Fusion e.g., 316L to ASTM F3184 or IN718 to ASTM-F3056, with low impurity pickup, including gasses (Oxygen, Nitrogen …), metals and non-metals (Carbon, Sulphur …), or ceramic/metal oxide inclusions from crucibles or metal surfaces in contact with the liquid metal.