Spherical metal powder is a raw material used in additive manufacturing, powder metallurgy industry, metal powder injection molding technology and metal spraying and 3D welding technology. High-performance metal powder, applied in manufacturing, increases the quality, density, precision and strength of metal parts due to its good spherical morphology and narrow size distribution. Therefore, the preparation of high-performance spherical metal powder has become a popular research topic in mechanical manufacturing industry. Currently, the major preparation methods are water atomization, gas atomization, plasma rotating electrode process (PREP), plasma atomization (PA) and ultrasonic atomization. However, water atomization only leads to fine metal powder with poor sphericity and high oxygen content. Metal powder produced with gas atomization, susceptible to its unpredictable process, is likely to have pores. Preparation of fine spherical metal powder with particle size <45 μm by PREP requires higher rotational speed of the electrode, and the powder collection rate of PA is only 40%. Compared with other methods, ultrasonic atomization has wider range of application and higher controllability, and requires simpler equipment and process as well as lower cost. Moreover, the prepared powder has good spherical morphology and narrow size distribution, and thus a better application prospect. The paper summarizes the preparation method of fine spherical metal powder and its research progress on producing high-performance spherical metal powder by ultrasonic atomization. Contact ultrasonic atomization and ultrasonic standing wave atomization are introduced respectively to demonstrate the development of metal powder production around the world. Researches within the country mainly focus on contact ultrasonic atomization, while ultrasonic standing wave atomization proceeds chiefly in other countries. Several factors affecting the ultrasonic standing wave atomization techno-logy are analyzed and forecasted. © 2020, Materials Review Magazine. All right reserved.
