Plasma spheroidised metals for additive manufacturing

Metal and ceramic powders are the basis for many technical and industrial processes and applications, such as powder metallurgy, thermal spraying, electronics and catalysis. Nevertheless, there is still a need for further developments, because the powdery raw materials eventually determine the properties of final products and may be the cause of the problems in the processing of these: Impurities or corrosion processes at the powder production (e.g. by the grinding processes) can have a disadvantageous effect or the particle shape leads to a greater abrasion or a rough coating texture. At the same time market requirements are changing more and more quickly and frequently. To be able to react to this, manufacturers need flexible, fast solutions for development, production and quality assurance. Thereby, the high melting point of metals such as tungsten or titanium or technical ceramics (tungsten carbide), which are important for hard alloys, is an additional challenge.