Powder bed additive manufacturing with metal powders manufactured by Attrition

PI: Anthony Rollett
University: Carnegie Mellon University

In powder-based additive manufacturing, both feedstock and 3D-printing process considerably influence the final cost of the component. Production of irregularly shaped powder via metal attrition is 25-40 % cheaper and faster than gas-atomized powder with spherical morphology. A notable advantage of attrited powder is that it has no porosity by contrast to gas atomization. Although near-spherical powders are assumed to be required, success was obtained recently in previous PITA projects in demonstrating that strongly non-spherical Hydride-Dehydride Ti-6Al-4V powder can be used in both laser and electron beam powder bed fusion (LPBF). Metal Powder Works, a local startup company, will work with CMU to build on this success and demonstrate the use of irregularly shaped powder in binder jet (BJ) and LPBF technologies. Powder morphology and size distribution will be investigated for their effect on powder bed density, printability, and green part density. Particular attention will be paid to the spreading step.