"Characteristics of stainless steel powder of SUS304 and SUS316 treated by plasma spheroidization using DC-arc plasma splay"

For the additive manufacturing (AM), it is important to use a suitable metal powder to obtain good quality products. In addition, AM requires the metal powder with high purity, high flowability, and high packing density. Therefore, the powder suited for AM generally has high cost. We have focused on a plasma spheroidization for water-atomized powder utilizing a plasma splay gun to solve an above issue. Water atomized powder is generally low-cost compared than a powder synthesized by any other atomization technique although the powder does not have spherical shape i.e. low grade. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the cost of the powder required for AM by manufacturing a high-grade powder from the water-atomized powder. In this study, we have employed stainless steel powder of SUS304 and SUS316 since it has not been fully understood detail treatment characteristic of DC-arc plasma spheroidization. Characteristics of treated powder have been analyzed by SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), EDS (Energy dispersive X-ray scope), and particle size analyzer. To observe the spheroidizing process, spatially resolved measurement of the emission from the melted particles was additionally performed by means of high-speed camera. Detail results and discussion will be presented in the conference.