Spheroidisation of stainless steel powder for additive manufacturing

In additive manufacturing, powder characteristics play an important role in terms of flowability and densification, which can be improved by the use of spherical powders. In this study, irregular powder was spheroidised by plasma treatment, and the powder properties were measured. Powder characterisation was conducted to determine the morphology, particle size and distribution as well as the flowability. Spherical AISI 304 stainless steel powders were produced by plasma spheroidization, and the efficiency of the spheroidisation process was evaluated. The spheroidisation process resulted in 93% efficiency with a decrease of fine particles (<63 µm) by 22%, while the all the flowability parameters of the powder improved significantly.