Сourse

«Additive Technologies in Metallurgy &

Mechanical Engineering»
Liudmila Radionova

Lecture notes
 Topic 2. Powder materials for SLM technology
Powders – bulk materials with characteristic particle size up to 1.0 mm – are
conditionally classified by particle size (by conventional diameter d), subdividing them into
nanodispersed ones with d < 0.001 µm, ultradispersed ones - d = 0.01-0.1 µm, highly
dispersed ones - d = 0.1-10 µm, small ones - d = 10-40 µm, medium ones - d = 40-250
µm and large ones - d = 250-1000 µm.
At present, there are no general requirements to metal powder compositions used
in additive technologies. Different machine manufacturers recommend working with a
specific list of materials, usually supplied by the manufacturer.
Different machines use powders with different fractional composition. One of the
parameters characterizing the powder is the average particle diameter – d50. For
example, d50 = 40 µm means that 50% of the powder particles have a particle size
smaller or equal to 40 µm.
A significant drawback in the production of powders is the fact that there are no
standards for materials for AM-technologies, and methods for assessing the properties of
materials obtained by traditional technologies, cannot be applied to additive technologies
due to the presence of anisotropy, which is inevitable in the layered principle of creation
of the product. Currently, only ASTM F2924 standard for Ti-6Al-4V alloy has been
developed for use in Powder Bed Fusion technologies.
Metal for additive devices is produced as fine spherical granules with grain size
from 4 to 100 microns. This value determines the thickness of the object which will be
grown in the additive device. During creation of a powder the size and composition of the
particles is set, as it is necessary to apply a certain percentage of coarse and fine
granules. In this way, the yield of metal tested with the Hall device (funnel with a calibrated
hole) is determined. If the granules have too small fraction, the metal will not flow through
the funnel and, accordingly, poorly fed to the construction platform, and this directly
affects the uniformity of the resulting layers and the quality of the product grown.
The general requirement for powders for AM machines is a spherical particle
shape. The spherical shape provides a more compact particle volume and "flowability" of
the powder composition with minimal resistance in the material feeding systems.
Each company producing this type of 3D printers has its own requirements for
fluidity, depending on the principle of applying the material to the construction platform.
In SLM additive systems, metal is fed to the desktop from the feeder in the top (chamber
with material) and transferred by the recorder. In this case the fluidity is very important so
that the powder is fed from the feeder to the recorder and the layers are applied properly.
DMP technology uses a slightly different principle of operation: the container with the
powder is lifted slightly, it is transferred to the construction table with the help of the roller,
then the container is lowered. Due to this design, the yield strength is not critical.
Machines working with pyroform materials such as aluminum and titanium must
be equipped with a fire protection system and a fire warning system. When working with
fine powders (especially at d50 < 10) it is necessary to follow the safety rules. This is due
to the fact that the smaller the d50, the smaller the construction step can be set, the finer
the component elements can be worked out and the smoother the surface can be
obtained from the built component. In the process of construction a large amount of
energy is introduced in the area of the laser spot, the melting process is very rapid, the
metal "boils", so there is a spray of the melt and part of the metal flies out of the
construction area. Visually, this is noticeable by the intense spark formation. If the powder
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has too small particle size, in the process of construction light particles will "fly out" of the
melt zone, which will lead to increased roughness of the part and microporosity.
In order to prevent particles escaping out of the melting zone from getting onto the
fused areas of the surface of the layer under construction, a directed "wind" is created
inside the working chamber that blows the escaping particles aside. It may also cause
too intensive discharge of powder material from the construction zone. For this reason,
during work with fine powders with d50 <10, low-power lasers are used, therefore, low-
productive. Such powders (with appropriate machine settings) are mostly used for
microdetails, which cannot be produced by other means. Due to the high tendency of the
fine powders to stick, special conditions of materials storage and operation of AM-
machines are required.

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This course was developed with the support of the "Open
Polytech" educational project

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