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| Effect of EIGA process parameters on the properties of TC4 alloy powder for laser 3D printing |
| CHEN Jialu1，2，AN Ran1，DONG Huanhuan2，ZHANG Lei1 |
| （1. Experimental Center, Shenyang Institute of Science and Technology, Shenyang 110167, China; 2. School of Material Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China） |
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Abstract Electrode induced vacuum melting and atomization (EIGA) is one of the key technologies for prepar‐ ing high-purity and high-performance TC4 titanium alloy powder for laser 3D printing, and the powder charac‐ teristics such as sphericity, flowability, apparent density, particle size and hollow sphericity of the alloy powder have an important impact on forming high strength and toughness alloy. In this paper, by suing testing methods such as metallographic microscope, scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffractometer, and Hall flowmeter，the influence of process parameters on the characteristics of titanium alloy powder preparation was studied, and the surface microstructure and performance characteristics of powders with different particle sizes were character‐ ized. The research results show that the preparation process parameters have an important influence on the prop‐ erties of TC4 alloy powder. Under the optimized conditions of the preparation of EIGA, with power of 60 kW, the rotation speed of 5. 5 r/min, the feeding rate of 650 μm/s, the atomization pressure of 6.0 MPa and the exten‐ sion length of the tube of 2 mm, the spherical TC4 alloy powder with low oxygen content of 0.11% was success‐ fully prepared, and the composition and powder parameters that meet the needs of laser 3D printing was obtained. The sphericity of the prepared alloy powder reached 98%; the main size of the powder was between 1 and 150 μm; the apparent density of the powder was 2. 870 g/cm3; and the hollow ball rate was ≤ 3%. Among them, the alloy powder with size of 1-53 μm accounts for about 26% of the total powder, while the powder with size of 54-150 μm accounts for about 53% of the total powder; the average flowability is 25 s/50g. The TC4 al‐ loy powder prepared by this method has high sphericity, smooth surface, dense hexagonal, α-Ti single-phase solid solution, uniform composition, and meets the requirements of parts prepared by laser direct deposition 3D printing technology.
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Received: 16 September 2022
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Corresponding Authors:
张 磊（1985—），男，硕士，副教授，主要研究方向为激光增材制造。
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2023, Vol. 33 
