Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Metal powder production by rotating electrode using laser
Submission Author:
Manoel Kolling Dutra , SC
Co-Authors:
Gustavo Silva, Arthur Lopes Dal Mago, Frederico Narciso, Manoel Kolling Dutra, Claudio Abilio da Silveira, Milton Pereira
Presenter: Gustavo Silva
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-1080
Abstract
The demand for advanced materials has continued to increase, resulting in an urgent need for high-quality metal powders. To meet this demand, various conventional powder production techniques such as chemical, mechanical, electrolytic, and atomization processes have been developed and extensively used to produce metallic powders. However, these techniques have limitations in producing fine powders with spherical morphology and are not well-suited for low-volume production of specialized alloy powders for research and development. Furthermore, there has been a lack of research on equipment development for the produced powders, which limits their widespread applications. To address these issues, this study proposes the use of a laser source to produce metal powder. The rotating electrode process involves the irradiation of a plasma on a rotating sample of the material to be transformed in powder. In this study, a high-power continuous wave laser is delivered onto a rotating consumable metallic substrate driven by a high-speed motor. In this regard, the work proposes the development of a device capable of producing metal powder integrated into a laser bench, consisting of a powder processing and collection chamber and a high-speed pneumatic motor. The laser irradiation on the rotating substrate results in surface melting and expulsion of fine droplets, which have the potential to of er cost-ef ective and ef icient alternatives to conventional powder production techniques. To validate powder production, experiments were conducted for the atomization of samples of diferent steels using a fiber laser power of 10 kW and a rotating speed of 70,000 RPM, with varied motor speed and laser power to determine the optimal processing window. The preliminary results are presented in this study. Overall, this work showcases the potential of laser-based rotating electrode processes for producing high-quality metal powders with desirable properties. However, further research is needed to optimize the process parameters and develop suitable equipment for larger-scale production of metal powders using this method.
Keywords
metal powders, laser-based rotating electrode, powder production
