Over the recent years, there has been a significant increase of interest in Additive Manufacturing technologies. AM enables production of solid elements with complicated shapes from a variety of materials. In the case of metal AM, feedstock is usually in the form of wire or spherical powder. Powder dedicated for AM needs to meet a number of strict standards, such as small grain size, narrow particle size distribution, good flowability, chemical homogeneity and high purity. All of those properties have a significant impact on the quality of the final product, and therefore are critical for the feedstock powder. Powders appropriate for AM are usually produced by atomization methods. Plasma atomisation is one of such technologies, and most often uses RF or DC plasma torches.
Spherical powders can also be obtained by spheroidization of irregular powders. This approach is especially relevant when recycling scrap, which often comes in the form of small chips or shavings. It is also useful when processing refractory metals, due to their high melting point and brittleness – properties that hamper atomisation from melt and from wire, respectively.
The poster presents results of alternative production technology of titanium alloy spherical powders. It consists of processing machining-generated scrap to obtain irregular powders and subsequent plasma spheroidization with a DC torch in reaction column. Results of spheroidization of refractory metal powders are also presented.