A novel process for spheroidization of irregular shaped metallic powders

ABSTRACT

Spherical morphology of metallic powder particles has great demand in powder industry. Manufacturing of such powders requires more energy which makes spherical powders expensive, whereas manufacturing irregular shaped powders is much cheaper. In present context, there has been an attempt in designing and fabricating a laboratory scale apparatus and an economical process to convert irregular powder into spherical morphology. Irregular shaped water atomised powder (size: 25–75 µm) was continuously fed into new apparatus for comminution. The processed powders were subjected to characterization using scanning electron microscopy, circularity analysis, and flow time analysis. Optimum process parameters for obtaining spherical powders have been established for the given powder. An increase in degree of spheroidization from 33.77 to 88.65% has been observed, likewise a significant increment in apparent density and decreased flow time has been recorded. It was established that cyclic wear mechanism was the predominant phenomenon in achieving improved degree of spheroidization.

KEYWORDS:

• Spherical powder
• circularity
• degree of spheroidization
• flow time
• apparent density
• cyclic wear mechanism

Acknowledgements

We thank Rio Tinto Metal Powders Pvt. Ltd., Canada for providing us alloyed metallic powders for this research work.

Disclosure statement

The Design and Process mentioned in the manuscript have been filed complete along with specification for patent with application number 201921003487. We do not have tie-up with any industrial organization and the work mentioned is original.

Notes on contributors

Jay Runwal completed his B. Tech-Metallurgy and Materials Science from College of Engineering Pune in 2019 and Currently studying for M. Sc Metallurgical Engineering at Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University,Germany. He has Major interest in Powder manufacturing for additive manufacturing, and materials recycling.

Revati Ambekar completed her B.Tech-Metallurgy and Materials Science from College of Engineering Pune in 2019. Currently studying for M.Sc Metallurgical Engineering at Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen, Germany. She has 1 year of industrial experience with JSW Steel Limited, Dolvi. She has major interest in Powder Metallurgy, Biomaterials and Energy storage material.

Dr. N. B. Dhokey completed his BE – Metallurgy from VNIT Nagpur, MTech from IIT Mumbai.He completed his PhD. His research interest in Powder Metallurgy, Alloy synthesis, Tribology ofmaterials and Cryogenic treatment of materials. He has published more than 80 publications tohis credit. He has 7 years of industrial experience mostly in steel in years ofteaching experience. He worked as a Principal investigator on several projects sponsored by ISRO, DRDO, UGC, AICTE, DST, IMP Pune, John Deere and so on. He is associated withprofessional societies and Vice President of PMAI India.