Low-cost powder production and recycling for additive manufacturing

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The field of additive manufacturing (AM) is exploding worldwide, but its adoption is still restrained by the economics, in which powder cost remains a significant expense and can represent up to 20% of the manufacturing cost. ******The objective of this proposal is to study low-cost powder fabrication avenues for various systems and their recyclability to produce the desired and needed high quality AM-grade metal powder. The requested equipment that will mitigate this manufacturing economic hurdle is a shereodization chamber with an environment control exchange port to upgrade the Tekna SY33 plasma torch unit present in the Plasma Processing Laboratory of McGill University. ******The key scientific challenges to be tackled are to understand and control the competitive interactions occurring in the reactive plasma and the free-fall section of the reactor to transform the feedstock particles into AM-grade powders. The key metrics to be studied are adequate morphology, purity level and avoiding the evaporation of the alloying element. The specific research programs to be tackled are (1) Restoration of AM-grade powder properties, (2) In-situ doping of the reactive plasma to control evaporation losses, (3) Production of AM-grade powder using admixtures feedstock, (4) Cost reduction using low-cost powder starting feedstock, (5) Production of AM powder with chemistries incompatible with conventional powder processing. Most key metallic systems to the AM industry will be studied, i.e. Al alloys, Ti alloys, Ni-based Superalloys and stainless steels. Additional chemistries such as refractory materials and bulk metallic glasses will also be studied. ******The skill and knowledge to be developed and trained HQPs will be instrumental to the key cluster composed of 6 major metal powder producers located within a radius of 200 km of Montreal: Advanced Powders and Coatings (St-Eustache), Equisphere (Ottawa), PyroGenesis (Montreal), Quebec Metal Powder (Sorel), Tekna (Sherbrooke), and 5-N plus (Montreal). ******This upgrade of the Tekna SY33 plasma source will extend its useful life for another 10 years.**