1993 Volume 79 Issue 12 Pages 1356-1362
For developing a fine superalloy powder production process, a steelmaking pig iron instead of the superalloy as atomizing metal was selected from reasons of economy and availability, and effects of some gas jet streams of a confined design gas atomization on mass median particle diameter of the iron powder were studied. The application of streams of swirl jet, multiple discrete jets and supersonic jet to the atomization was more effective for disintegration of the iron melt. In addition, the disintegration phenomena were observed using a video camera and the atomization mechanism was discussed.
On the basis of these results, a confined design gas atomization process with supersonic, multiple discrete and swirl jets was developed. By using this process, a fine Co based superalloy powder of about 30 μm in mass median particle diameter was produced.