Experimental study on the preparation of copper/tin composite spherical powder
by spray drying-vacuum sintering process
ZHAO Xingke1,2,ZHANG Peng1,2,ZHAO Zenglei1
(1. Shunde Graduate School of University of Science and Technology Beijing,Foshan 528399,China; 2. School
of Materials Science and Engineering,University of Science and Technology Beijing,Beijing 100083,Chin
Abstract:Bronze is one of the earliest metal materials used by mankind, and it is still widely used today. Metal ad‐
ditive manufacturing technology breaks through the limitations of traditional processing on the structure of bronze
parts, and adds vitality to the application of this material. However, due to the high reflectivity of copper alloys to
laser light, laser additive manufacturing is difficult, and copper/tin composite spherical powder is an important way
to solve this problem. To this end, the experimental study on the preparation of copper/tin composite spherical pow‐
der by spray drying-sintering process was carried out. On the basis of the pre-test, an orthogonal test scheme was
designed to systematically study the influence of the binder, the solid content of the slurry, the atomization pressure
and the atomization temperature on the properties of the powder. The copper/tin composite spherical powder pre‐
pared by optimized process parameters has a particle size of 10-40 μm, of which D50 is 25 μm, D90 is 31.2 μm, and
the powder particles are spherical. After vacuum sintering at 300 °C, the composite powder is mainly composed of
copper and tin raw material particles, and a small amount of Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn intermetallic compounds are formed between the copper and tin raw material particles. The sintered copper/tin composite powder has better resistance
to crushing strength.