A Novel Method For Classifying Metal Powder Below 20 Microns Utilizing The Coanda Effect

摘要

Recently, the market demands for metal powder for molding technology such as AM and MIM have increased and these technologies are expected to change manufacturing processes for many industries including the medical sector and aerospace components. For these industries, fine metal powders in narrow particle size distribution are required as these parts are small and precisely structured. However, it is difficult to classify powder below 20 microns with conventional classification methods, and even harder below 10 microns. The Elbow-Jet Air Classifier is a unique static classifier utilizing the Coanda effect and inertia of the particles themselves. This classifier demonstrates high performance in the range of 0.5 to 50 microns and can classify particles into three different size fractions in a single-pass operation. This paper describes the result of metal powder classification by Elbow-Jet Air Classifier with excellent results in producing a fraction that is 5–15 microns in (d10:6.76/d50:10.55/d90:16.45 microns).