Producing Metal Powders for Additive Technologies

Abstract

Additive technologies become to be widely used in modern mechanical engineering. There are different methods and equipment for carrying out this task, but they all require a starting material - a metal powder with certain physical and chemical characteristics. In modern realities, it is important for Russia to provide itself with high-quality and inexpensive raw materials, which justifies the search for new methods. (Research purpose) The research purpose is considering the most popular and energy-efficient methods of manufacturing metal powder materials for additive manufacturing, justifying the use of a promising method of electroerosive dispersion, which allows obtaining powders with the required characteristics from mechanical engineering waste. (Materials and methods) Literature sources, scientific papers, as well as laboratory equipment were used to study the properties of powder materials, in detail: Olympus GX-51 inverted metallographic microscope, Microtrac Bluewave particle size analyzer, Autosorb-1 specific surface area analyzer, QUANTA 600 FEG electron-ion scanning microscope, drying cabinet SHS-80-01 SPU, a set of sieves according to GOST 2715-75, analytical scales Acculab ALC-210d4. (Results and discussion) Various atomization methods and the properties of metal powders that can be used in additive technologies were analyzed and described. The method of electroerosive dispersion was noted as promising and the powder material obtained with its help was studied. (Conclusions) Additive technologies are becoming more widespread. An urgent task is the search for new ways to obtain metal powders for their producing. The most promising is the method of electroerosive dispersion, which allows obtaining powders with specified properties from mechanical engineering waste. The particles of this powder have a regular rounded shape, high specific surface area and low porosity.