R. Dolbec
Tekna Plasma Systems, Inc.,
Canada
Keywords: additive manufacturing
Summary:
The performances of metal powder-based additive manufacturing (AM) technologies like electron-beam melting (EBM) and selective laser melting (SLM) greatly depend on powder characteristics such as flowability, packing density and purity. Particles exhibiting a perfectly spherical morphology largely contribute at optimizing both the flowability and the packing density of a powder. However, not all the powder manufacturing processes succeed at optimizing these critical characteristics for the AM needs since satellites, pores and/or particles of irregular morphologies are regularly observed in commercially available powders produced with conventional processes. With its inductively-coupled plasma (ICP)-based proprietary technology and decades of research and development in powder processing, Tekna has the capabilities to support the AM industry by supplying powders that meet the most stringent requirements. Tekna’s ICP technology will be briefly described and case studies will be presented.