Study of mechanical spheroidization of powders obtained from waste metal shavings

Abstract

This paper covers the search for a new method for generating metal powders for additive manufacturing. Raw materials for 3D printing are subject to certain requirements regarding the spherical shape of the powder particles, which are not easily met. The powder preparation methods used in the powder metallurgy may not be directly used for 3D printing without additional energy consumption for the spheroidization operation. More high-tech principles of melt dispersion shall be used for the spheroidization (atomization) of powder particles. Metal waste grinding in ball or vibrating mills generally yields plate-like particles, also requiring the use of energy-intensive atomization technologies. However, an analysis of related foreign research provided an alternative that is to use two-stage grinding to obtain spherical metal powder particles. Continued research in mechanical spheroidization enables the simultaneous manufacture and grinding of the required spherical particles while maintaining practically the same energy consumption that had been previously required for the grinding process. In order to form a research program and establish the optimal grinding size in terms of energy consumption and the dependence between the ball diameter and the grinding and spheroidization results for metal particles, respective preliminary experiments were carried out. The results of these experiments were then used to formulate the conclusions required to develop a method for establishing the optimal grinding ball charge level and composition. The study was carried out under the grant issued by the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 20-79-10125).