Influence of Powder Properties on the Mixing Behavior of Metal Powders in LPBF

Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) has become an attractive alternative to conventional processing routes over the past years. While some alloys are already processed in series production, the overall amount of available materials is low. Due to the high price of specially atomized powders, material variation is often neglected. In this work, metal powder blends are created and investigated in order to find the influences of powder properties on blending behaviour. The blending tests are based on 316L and various individually added element powders. This supports the understanding of influences of different parameters on the mixing behaviour. Analytic methods to define properties such as particle diameter, density, particle shape and mixing time are defined. The printing tests serve the verification of the results drawn from the blending processes. A threshold for a homogeneity of a powder blend is defined.