Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e8

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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A novel method for the production of metal powders without

conventional atomization process
A. Canakci*, T. Varol
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Engineering Faculty, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Fabrication of Al alloy powders from recycling chips by mechanical milling is a novel processing tech-
Received 29 April 2014 nique. In this study, the mechanical milling was applied to the production of AA7075 powders from the
Received in revised form recycling chips. The effect of milling time on the morphology, particle size and powder yield of the milled
19 February 2015
chips and fabricated powders was investigated. Fabricated powders were characterized by a scanning
Accepted 27 February 2015
electron microscope (SEM), a Laser Particle Size Analyzer, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive
Available online xxx
spectroscopy (EDS). A chip milling model based on the morphology and size of milled powders were
presented. It was found that after 10 h of milling, the average particle size of the AA7075 powders was
Keywords:
Powder production
reduced to 35 mm. Results showed that 5 h of milling was the critical milling time in a change in the chip
Mechanical milling morphology (segmented shape) from powder morphology (irregular shape). The particle size of fabri-
Chip recycling cated powders after 10 h of milling was about 286 times lower than that of initial chips.
AA7075 Crown Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction environmental destroying, and high cost process. Moreover, it was

Metal processing and similar industries related to
manufacturing processes such as machining, surface finishing and
painting have been accepted as polluting industries. The most
discussed issues associated with metal processing/products, ma-
chinery and automotive sectors are consumption of large amounts
of raw materials and energy (Alkaya and Demirer, 2013). The waste
of raw materials and energy consumption can be prevented using
effective recycling methods (Hatayama et al., 2012; Koyanaka and
Kobayashi, 2010).
Al and its alloys have significant technological importance in
automotive, defense and aircraft industries due to their light weight
and high specific strength. Machining is one of the most important
processes used for manufacturing semi-finished and final products
of Al and Al alloys by removing the excess parts in the form of small
chips. The amount of chips fabricated as a result of machining
process is sufficiently large so that recycling of the machining chips
is required for industrial and environmental reasons. Casting is
generally supposed as a traditional method for recycling the Al and
Al alloy chips. However, in the past two decades, recycling the chips
by casting has been revealed to be an energy consuming,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ90 462 3772927.
E-mail address: aykut@ktu.edu.tr (A. Canakci).
found that 46e48% of the Al chip mass became a loss during
recycling using the casting process (Gronostajski et al., 2000;
Samuel, 2003; Mahboubi Soufiani et al., 2010; El Aal et al., 2013).
The different production methods namely centrifugal atomization
(Plookphol et al., 2011), water atomization (Liu et al., 2011),
chemical vapor deposition (CVD) (Jovic et al., 2006), electrolysis
(Orhan and Hapçı, 2010) and mechanical milling (Varol and
Canakci, 2013; Canakci et al., 2013a,b; Canakci et al., 2012) have
been used to produce metal and composite powders which have
superior mechanical (hardness) and physical properties (apparent
density, size and shape). These metal powder production processes
differ in their production rate, structure and morphology of the
obtained materials and the economical aspects especially in energy
consumption. However, the main goals which become prominent
in high-tech applications are controlled and adjustment of particle
size, structure and morphology (Liu, 2000; Kandjani et al., 2010).
The atomized powders usually have a broad size distribution,
which can affect not only production cost but also compact density.
The amount of powder fabricated by atomization methods is very
low and the use of expensive inert gas (argon or helium) is needed
to prevent oxidation (Liu et al., 2011). Moreover, the conventional
casting process sequence consists of four major steps: (1) Consol-
idation of metal chips, (2) Melting of chip billets by using a furnace,
(3) Atomization of melting metals, (4) The process of sieve analysis.
However, the production of metal powders from the chips can be

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.090
0959-6526/Crown Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Canakci, A., Varol, T., A novel method for the production of metal powders without conventional atomization
process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.090
2 A. Canakci, T. Varol / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e8

provided by mechanical milling in a single step. Even though the introduces a novel method to produce the alloy powders, pure
ultrafine metal powders with high purity can be obtained in metal powders, nanocrystalline powders, nano powders, compos-
chemical vapor deposition, they tend to have a broad size distri- ite powders and nanocomposite powders from the recycling
bution because the nucleation and the particle growth proceed machining chips.
simultaneously. Also, this technique is not suitable for the mass
production of the metal powders due to the difficulty of the tech- 2. Experimental procedure
nique and the expensive cost (Kim et al., 2004). The powders
fabricated by electrolysis method have high purity but this method AA7075 chips with the composition of 1.08% Cu, 0.15% Si, 2.72%
is very expensive. (Mojtahedi et al., 2011). Mechanical milling (MM) Mg, 0.03% Mn, 0.05% Ti, 0.11% Cr, 0.22% Fe, 5.5% Zn and 90.14% Al (in
applies high energy impacts on the charged chip and powder by wt.%) were fabricated during machining of a rod billet in a lathe
ball-powder-ball and ball-powder-vial collisions causing severe (Fig. 1a). EDX spot analysis performed from three different points
plastic deformation, repeated fracturing and cold welding of the on the billet material was given in Table 1. Segmented type chips
particles leading to micron and sub-micron powders (Alam, 2006; were obtained during turning operation. After turning operation,
Suryanarayana, 2001, 1995; Gleiter, 2000). Mechanical milling of AA7075 chips were cut into chips by double roller crusher (Fig. 1b).
powder particles has created a significant alternative to other The final dimensions of the chips were 10 mm  2 mm  0.5 mm,
production methods in preparing nanocrystalline powders, nano after the cutting process (Fig. 2), after the crusher process (Fig. 1c).
powders, composite powders and intermetallics with a broad range The chips were milled using high energy planetary Fritsch ball mill
of composition and structures in recent years. Mechanical milling is (Pulverisette 7, Premium line) for 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 h in
a powder processing technique and it is especially useful for the WC vials. To prevent excessive cold welding of the particles,
fabrication of composite and alloy powders that are difficult to methanol (2 wt. %) was used as a process control agent (PCA). The
prepare by conventional processes due to high vapor-pressure or milling speed of 400 rpm and ball-to-powder weight ratio of 30:1
large differences in the melting temperature of the components were used. 5 g chip was milled in every milling process. Samples
(Alam, 2006; Murty and Ranganathan, 1998; Malow and Koch,
1998). The mechanical milling offers powders having superior
properties such as a narrow broad size distribution as compared
with other powder production methods such as atomization,
chemical vapor deposition and electrolysis. Moreover, the me-
chanical milling has shown great potential in synthesizing a wide
variety of nanocrystalline powders, metal matrix composite pow-
ders and alloy powders with unique properties. Gogebakan et al.
(2013) synthesized nanocrystalline CuMgNi alloy powders me-
chanical milling from mixtures of pure crystalline Cu, Mg and Ni
powders using a planetary ball mill with different ball to powder
ratio. They observed that the average particle size of the as-received
powders decreased with increasing milling time due to refinement
of particle size and accumulation of internal strain in the early stage
of milling process. Moreover, in recent years, a number of studies
have also been reported on alloys and metal matrix composites
produced by consolidation of machining chips using mechanical
milling and powder metallurgy method. For instance, Sherafat et al.
(2009) investigated the possibility of recycling Al7075 alloy chips
with the help of commercially pure Al powders, via powder met-
allurgy method and hot extrusion process. They studied the effect
of Al powders and their amounts on the mechanical properties of
the recycled chips. According to their results the strength increased
and ductility decreased with increasing the amount of chip in the
samples. Gronostajski et al. (1998) presented an alternative process,
where chips of Al and its alloys are cut or milled converted directly
from hot plastic working into final products. They observed the
hardness and mechanical properties of Al and AlMg2 base com-
posites are slightly lower than those of monolithic materials. The
alternative process does not have any harmful effects on the
environment and the material produced can be further processed
by other plastic working methods such as forging and rolling.
Although the nanocrystalline powder, the composite powder
fabricated by mechanical milling of as-received powders and metal
matrix composite produced from the machining chips via powder
metallurgy method have been reported, powder production from
the machining chips by mechanical milling, stages of milling,
structural evolution and characterization of synthesized powders
has not been studied. Therefore, the purpose of the present work
was to: (a) produce AA7075 powders from the machining chips by
mechanical milling; (b) investigate the stage of milling of chips; (c)
examine the change of morphology and size of chips with Fig. 1. Production stage of initial chips; (a) Turning operation, (b) roller Crusher, (c)
increasing milling time. This study is important because it broken chips with the roller.

Please cite this article in press as: Canakci, A., Varol, T., A novel method for the production of metal powders without conventional atomization
process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.090
 A. Canakci, T. Varol / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e8
Table 1
The results of EDX analysis of billet material.
The number of analysis Al Zn Mg Cu Si Mn Ti Cr
1 91.04 5.12 2.35 1.11 0.10 0.01 0.03 0.07 0.17
2 91.18 4.85 2.51 0.94 0.13 0.06 0.01 0.12 0.20
3 90.68 5.35 2.24 1.35 0.08 0.03 0.04 0.09 0.14
were collected every 1 h interval and the milling process was
continued until 10 h. Ball milling process was carried out under
argon atmosphere. The vials were sealed and purged with high
purity argon prior to the ball milling process. The size distributions
(D10, D50 and D90) of milled powders were quantified using a laser
particle size analyzer (Malvern, model ‘Mastersizer Hydro 2000e’).
Morphology and microstructure investigations of the chip and
powders were carried out using a scanning electron microscope
(SEM) (Zeiss Evo LS10). The phase analysis of milled products was
evaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) (Rigaku Corporation, Japan)
using CuKa radiation (1.54059 Å) operating at 30 mA and 40 kV. The
XRD patterns were recorded in the 2Ө range of 20e80 (step size
0.02 and time per step 1 s). Local compositional analysis was
conducted with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. The milling of the recycling chips
The chip morphology is an important indicator of the cutting
process stability in the metal cutting process. This morphology
depends on several parameters, which can be classified on cutting
parameters (cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut), cutting
configuration (tool geometry and cutting angles), and tool-work
piece couple behavior (thermo-mechanical loading and contact
with friction). According to these parameters, various types of chips
can be formed such as, thin flakes, segmented, continuous, spring
Fig. 2. (a) Chip formation during machining and (b) segmented chip morphology.
Please cite this article in press as: Canakci, A., Varol, T., A novel method for the production of metal powders without conventional atomization
process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.090
3
and helix type (Kouadri et al., 2013). Basically, chip formation is a
shear process involving plastic deformation within the shear zone
Fe (Fig. 2a) (Lin et al., 1998). The image of the chips formed in
machining AA7075 is shown in Fig. 2b. From the shape of the cross-
section, the chips can be classified as segmented or saw-toothed
chips.
When powders of uniform composition (pure metals, in-
termetallics and prealloyed powders) are milled in a high-energy
ball mill, the process has been named mechanical milling (MM).
Whenever two milling balls collide, a small amount of powder is
trapped in between them. The powder morphology can be modi-
fied in two different ways during this process. If ductile metal
particles are used as starting materials, the flattened layers overlap
and form cold welds. This leads to formation of layered composite
powder particles consisting of various combinations of the starting
materials. The work-hardened elemental or composite powder
particles may fracture at the same time. These competing events of
cold welding (with plastic deformation and agglomeration) and
fracturing (size reduction) continue repeatedly throughout the
milling period. Eventually, a steady-state is reached when refined
and homogenized microstructure is obtained and the composition
of the powder particles is the same as the proportion of the starting
constituent powders (Suryanarayana and Al-Aqeeli, 2013) Fig. 3
shows the evolution of different stages of mechanical milling for
a ductileeductile system (Canakci et al., 2013a,b). As can be seen in
Fig. 3, the particles undergo deformation, their morphology
changes from equiaxed to flatten in the initial stage of mechanical
milling. The welding mechanism predominates, causing the equi-
axed particle formation in the second stage. At this stage, oriented
interfacial boundaries are observed. Then, welding and fracture
mechanisms reach equilibrium and the formation of particles with
randomly oriented interfacial boundaries or, in other words, the
random welding orientation. The final stage is named by the steady
state process, in which the microstructural refinement can
continue, but the particle size and size distribution remain
approximately the same (Fogagnolo et al., 2003).
It should be noted that the stage observed during the milling of
ductile chips, which are milled using mechanical milling is different
than the stage observed in powders milled by mechanical milling
(Fig. 4). The production method is one of the important differences
between the chip and powder. The majority of metal powders are
manufactured by rapid solidification method. However, the chips
are produced from metals fabricated by casting method. There are
significant differences between the powder and chip properties,
such as microstructure, physical and mechanical properties due to
Fig. 3. Evaluation of different stages of mechanical milling for a ductileeductile system
[10].
4 A. Canakci, T. Varol / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e8
Fig. 4. The different stages of mechanical milling for machining chips.
the different manufacturing method. It should be noted that the
difference between microstructure, physical and mechanical
properties of powder and chips effect milling process. Fig. 4 shows
the evolution of different stages of mechanical milling for a
chipechip system. As can be seen in Fig. 4, chip milling includes
four basic stages. Initial stage of milling chip can be named as
segmentation due to separation of segment regions of the main
body. Cold welding between the chip and powders is the dominant
process in the second stage of chip milling. Moreover, deformation
process which has not included cold welding was observed at this
stage. In the third stage of chip milling, the morphology of all chips
changed and powders were formed due to work deformation. In
other words, all chips in the vial transformed powders which is the
most significant event observed at the third stage. It was seen that
there was a balance between the fracture and cold welding pro-
cesses in the final stage of milling.
3.2. Morphology
Segment regions and shear line regions of chips were fractured
as a result of plastic deformation occurred by ball-chip-ball and
ball-chip-vial surface collisions in the initial stage of chip milling
(0e0.5 h of milling) (Fig. 4). Fracture of these regions in the initial
stage of chip milling can be attributed effect of shear bands and
notches of segment regions on the fracture (Fig. 2). There are two
different particle types within the milling system at the end of the
initial stage of chip milling. The first type particle can be defined
coarse particles (chip) which occurred from the area between two
shear bands (Figs. 4 and 5a). The second type particles can be
defined fine particles (powder) which occurred from segments
(Figs. 4 and 5a). As shown in Fig. 5a, crack initiation and fracture
lines also began to form in the particle subjected to milling at this
stage. As it shown in Fig. 5b, cold welding between coarse particles
and fine particles and plastic deformation by ball-particle-ball and
ball-particle-vial surface collisions were observed during the sec-
ond stage of milling. Therefore, it can be said that cold welding and
plastic deformation were two main processes for a chip and chip
Please cite this article in press as: Canakci, A., Varol, T., A novel method for the production of metal powders without conventional atomization
process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.090
system during the second stage. However, it was observed that the
plastic deformation and fracture were two main processes for a
powderepowder system during the second stage. The reduction in
chip size of 5e10 mm to approximately 1000 mm at the end of 2 h of
milling is very important in terms of showing the effectiveness of
mechanical milling on the chip milling. The chip morphology
showed that the cold welding process is more effective than the
fracturing process up to 4 h of milling during this stage. The frac-
turing efficiency increased during 4 h of milling and so both chip
and powder size decreased (Fig. 5c). It should be noted that there
was no chip in the vial during the third stage of milling. As shown in
Fig. 6a, irregular morphology which contains angular and spherical
was obtained after 5 h of milling. The most interesting observation
in this stage is a shape change from chip morphology to powder
morphology. Moreover, cold welding between particles decreased
with increasing milling time in this stage. Work hardening causes
powders to become brittle, and the fracturing process becomes
significant for longer milling times (Fig. 6b). Dobrzynska et al.
(2011) studied the effect of the milling time on the properties of
ball milled powder of AleZn alloy. They reported that initial pow-
ders underwent deformation and their morphology changed from
irregular shape to flattened shape due to the collision with the balls.
Azimi et al. (2014) studied that the production AleZneMgeCueZr
alloy by using mechanical alloying method. They reported that the
particle size decreased and the powder morphologies changed to
spherical shape with increasing milling time as a result of plastic
deformation during the ball milling. As shown in Fig. 6c, equiaxed
morphology was obtained in the final stage of chip milling. The
formation of equiaxed particles showed that the milling reached to
the steady-state condition.
3.3. Particle size
Segment regions of chips were fractured and they were sepa-
rated from the body of the main chip at the initial stage of me-
chanical milling. Therefore, milling vial included in both chip and
powders during this stage. However, the amount of the powder was
very low in the vial. There are two main factors which affect the
amount of powder in the vial. The first of these is the amount of
fractured segment due to ball-chip-ball collisions. The second of
these is amount of cold welding between chip and fractured seg-
ments (powder). Based on this statement, it should be noted that
particle size showed a bimodal distribution (chip and powder) up
to a certain milling time (up to 5 h). The overall mass of vial
included 1.77 wt.% powder with an average particle size of 200 mm
and 98.23 wt.% chip with an average particle size of 1.5 mm at the
end of 0.5 h of milling (Fig. 5a). It was obtained that the amount of
chips was decreased while the amount of powder was increased
with increasing milling time. The increase in the amount of these
powders may be related to work hardening rate of the chip parti-
cles and ball collisions acting on them. It was observed that the cold
welding was very dominant between chip particles from 0.5 h to
1 h during mechanical milling. However, powder size was
decreased at the end of 1 h of the milling process due to ball-
powder-ball collisions. The overall mass of vial included 2.48 wt.%
powder with an average particle size of 150 mm and 97.52 wt.% chip
with an average particle size of 2 mm at the end of 1 h of milling
(Fig. 5b). It was seen that powders continued to fracture when the
particles was examined at the end of 2 h of milling. The overall mass
of vial included 28.37 wt.% powder with an average particle size of
110 mm and 71.63 wt.% chip with an average particle size of 2 mm at
the end of 2 h of milling. It should be noted that the size of the
overall mass of vial decreased slowly in the initial stage of chip
milling (0 he2 h). The overall mass of vial included 61.77 wt.%
powder with an average particle size of 91 mm and 38.23 wt.% chip
 A. Canakci, T. Varol / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e8 5

Fig. 5. SEM images of the chip and powders; (a) 0.5 h, (b) 2 h, (c) 4 h.

with an average particle size of 1.8 mm at the end of 3 h of milling. It
can be said that the work hardening or cold working of chips
showed a significant change in milling time up to 3 h. The defor-
mation of the chips increased continuously with increasing milling
time and work hardening reached critical value during this stage.
The overall mass of vial included 68 wt.% powder with an average
particle size of 82 mm and 32 wt.% chip with an average particle size
of 1000 mm at the end of 4 h of milling (Fig. 5c). All chips converted
to powders at the end of 5 h of milling. The initial morphology of
the chips was segmented in shape. It was clear that the chip
morphology changes with increasing milling time. After 5 h of
milling time, the chips exhibited significant plastic deformation
and fracture due to the mechanical milling process, and thus pro-
vided a shape change from a segment to an angular. The overall
mass of vial included 100 wt.% powder with an average particle size
of 75 mm at the end of 5 h of milling (Fig. 6a). It should be noted that
5 h of milling was the critical milling time for the change from the
chip morphology (segmented shape) to powder morphology
(irregular shape). Ball-chip-ball collisions were replaced with ball-
powder-ball collisions after this stage. In other words, milling
system evolved from a chip-powder system for a powderepowder
or a ductileeductile system. Mechanical milling for a ducti-
leeductile system contains two major process i.e. cold welding
(due to ball-powder-ball impacts) and fracturing (due to brittleness
induced by work hardening of powders) (Canakci et al., 2013a,b;
Suryanarayana, 2001). The cold welding process causes to
agglomeration and thus increasing the particle size. On the con-
trary, the fracturing process causes to breakage of the powder
particle hence, causes for a decrease in the particle size. Azimi et al.
(2015) reported deformation effect on the particle size during the
ball milling process. The relative dominance of these phenomena
depends on the powder characteristics and milling conditions
(Varol and Canakci 2013; Shukla et al., 2013; Varol, 2012). The
milling time is one of the important parameters for the milling
process. Normally the time is determined to achieve a steady state
between the fracturing and cold welding of powder particles to
facilitate mechanical milling. Suryanarayana (2001) stated that the
times required vary depending on the type of milling, milling set-
tings, and intensity of milling. As a general rule, it may be appre-
ciated that the steady state conditions are short for high energy
mills and longer for a low energy mill (Canakci et al., 2013a,b). Fig. 7
shows the change of the D10, D50 and D90 values for 5, 6, 7, 8 and
10 h of milling. It can be seen from Fig. 7, the average particle sizes
were markedly different for different milling time indicating that
the milling time has a significant effect. The average particle size of
composite powders after 10 h of milling was 10 mm, 35 mm and

Please cite this article in press as: Canakci, A., Varol, T., A novel method for the production of metal powders without conventional atomization
process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.090
6 A. Canakci, T. Varol / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e8
Fig. 6. SEM images of the powders; (a) 5 h, (b) 7 h, (c) 10 h.
85 mm for the D10, D50 and D90 values, respectively. As can be seen
in Fig. 7, there was a wide distribution of the average particle sizes
(D10, D50 and D90). In other words, the difference between the
average particle sizes (D10, D50 and D90) was very large after 10 h
of milling. This result can be attributed that the size of powders in
the vial after 5 h of milling was not homogeneous. It should be
noted that some powders occurred after 0.5 h in the initial stage of
chip milling while other powders were fabricated by ball-chip-ball
collisions after 5 h of chip milling.
3.4. XRD and EDX analysis
Fig. 8 shows XRD patterns of the as received AA7075 chips (0 h)
and milling chips (5 h and 10 h). According to the XRD phase
analysis (Fig. 8), the as received AA7075 chips and milling chips
were heterogeneous systems containing metallic Al (base element)
and the basic intermetallic compounds AlCuMg and Al5Mg11Zn4.
This result can be attributed to the casting process which was used
Please cite this article in press as: Canakci, A., Varol, T., A novel method for the production of metal powders without conventional atomization
process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.090
140
120
D10
D50
100 D90
Particle Size (μm)
80
60
40
20
0
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Milling time (h)
Fig. 7. The change of D10, D50 and D90 values with increasing milling time for
powderepowder system after 5 h of milling.
for the production of AA7075 billet material. It should be noted that
the presence of various intermetallic compounds, such as AlCuMg
and Al5Mg11Zn4 clearly shows alloying process between Al, Zn, Mg
and Cu fully occurred during the casting process. Individual peaks
of Zn, Mg and Cu elements were not shown in XRD patterns due to
the dissolution of Zn, Mg and Cu in Al lattice and formation a su-
persaturated AA7075 solid solution (Yazdian et al., 2010; Tavoosi
et al., 2008). Contamination from milling vials and balls is one of
the most important problems in mechanical milling process when
long milling time, high milling speed and hard components are
used. One method to minimize the contamination from milling vial
and balls is using the same material for the vial and milling balls.
However, it is sometimes difficult because of the non-availability of
the special vial and milling balls. It should be noted that metallic
powders are easily coated onto the surfaces of milling balls and
inner walls of the vial and can form a thin coating. This coating may
benefit to decrease the contamination level by preventing the
milling medium from contacting with the milled powders (Luo
et al., 2013; El-Eskandarany et al., 1990). EDX analyses of the
powders fabricated by 10 h of milling were performed to make
clear the effect of milling time and milling components on the
material contamination level of the milled powders. EDX spot
analysis of initial chips and milled powders (10 h) is shown in Fig. 9
and Fig. 10. As can be seen in Figs. 9 and 10, each data is an average
over 4 data taken from different area of the sample. EDX spot
analysis revealed that the chemical composition of powders did not
contain any contamination.
3.5. Powder yield
Powder yield is one of the most important indicators to estimate
milled powders recovered after ball milling, which is commonly
expressed by the ratio between the weight of powders after and
before ball milling. Powder yield also can quantification reflect the
adhering degree of powders during mechanical milling. The colli-
sions between milling balls, powders, and milling vial result in the
plastic deformation of the milled powders during ball milling. The
refined powders will be inclined to get together and coated onto
the milling balls and vial spontaneously due to the increase of the
surface activity (Zhu et al., 2010). The yield of the mechanical
milling process was calculated as the weight ratio between the total
powder loaded into the milling vial and the powder collected at the
end of the process. Fig. 11 shows the variation of powder yield as a
 A. Canakci, T. Varol / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e8 7

Fig. 8. XRD analysis of initial chips (0 h), 5 h and 10 h of milled powders.

function of the milling time. As can be seen in Fig. 11, the powder
yield showed no significant change with increasing milling time. It
should be noted that since mechanical milling does not include
melting loss the powders yield is high and less expensive in com-
parison with atomization methods.

4. Conclusions

In the present study, AA7075 powders from recycling chips were

produced using a novel method based on the mechanical milling of
Fig. 10. SEM image (a) and EDX spot analysis (b) of milled powders (10 h).
chips. The main achievements of this study may be summarized as
follows:

1. Mechanical milling can be used successfully to achieve metal

powders from the recycling chips. Shear zones and segment
regions of machining chips are two important properties which
facilitate fracturing.
2. A chip milling model has been introduced for the production of
powder from the chips during mechanical milling process. Ac-
cording to this model, ball-chip-ball collisions dominated up to
5 h of milling, while ball-powder-ball collisions observed after
5 h of milling. The overall mass of vial included 100 wt.% powder
with an average particle size of 75 mm at the end of 5 h of
milling.
3. By increasing the milling time from 0.5 to 10 h, the particle size
decreased continuously. The particle size decreased from about
10 mm (chip) to 35 mm (powder) with the increasing milling
time. The particle size of fabricated powders after 10 h of milling
was about 286 times lower than that of initial chips.

Fig. 9. SEM image (a) and EDX spot analysis (b) of initial chips. Fig. 11. Variation of powder yield with increasing milling time.

Please cite this article in press as: Canakci, A., Varol, T., A novel method for the production of metal powders without conventional atomization
process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.090
8 A. Canakci, T. Varol / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2015) 1e8
4. EDX analysis indicated that the chemical composition of pow-
ders contains any contamination.
5. The powder yield showed no significant change with increasing
milling time. The mechanical milling process is more effective in
producing metal powder from recycling chips than the con-
ventional atomization process. Mechanical milling can be used
as an alternative process of which the main advantage is to
produce fine powder with controlled characteristics such as
size, morphology, structure and powder yield.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the Karadeniz Technical University
Research Fund for financially supporting this study (grant no.
2010.112.010.4).
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