Morphology transformation of stainless steel 316L powder from spheres to flakes using high-energy ball milling and the investigation of transformation behaviour

ABSTRACT

Today, microfiltration plays the most significant role in removing fine particulate impurities in gas streams used in high-tech industries. However, the current SS316L gas filter has a limitation in enhancing performance due to the trade-off relationship between filterability and permeability. This limitation can be overcome by the geometrical effect of the gas filter that maximises inertial impaction and diffusion interception due to complex flow channels using small flake particles. However, since the smaller the particle size, the yield strength higher, there are few reports of preparing the small flake particles by plastic deformation. This study used a high-energy ball milling process to demonstrate the preparation method for small stainless steel 316L flake particles. Furthermore, the process parameters are systematically optimised to fully transform the spherical particles into thin platelets without fracture and cold welding, and the transformation behaviour is discussed in detail.

KEYWORDS:

• Filtration
• stainless steel
• flake particle
• high energy milling
• morphology transformation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Basic Research Program funded by the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials [grant number NK242J] and the Technology Innovation Program (20017434, Development of Maximum Diameter 400A UHP grade Pipe and Particle Free High Precision Module) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy(MOTIE, Korea).