Atomization process for metal powder

A new atomization process has been developed, which combines pressure and gas atomization. The melt leaves the pressure nozzle as a hollow thin film cone. After the pre-filming step, the melt is atomized by a gas stream delivered by a ring nozzle. The objectives of this investigation are to achieve a narrow size distribution and low specific gas consumption compared to conventional gas atomization techniques. Both lead to a higher efficiency and low costs. Tin and some alloys have been atomized successfully with this technique. The mass median diameters from different experiments are between 20 and 100 mum. Sieving analysis of the tin powder shows close particle size distributions. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.