TAGUCHI OPTIMIZATION OF THE DISTRIBUTION AND AGGLOMERATION OF NICKEL POWDER (T123 T110) IN BLENDED FE-NI POWDER MIXTURE

摘要

Homogeneity and agglomeration in powder blends are major issues in the powder metallurgy industry, and need to be optimized to achieve near net shape complex geometry parts to tight tolerance. In this paper, we describe a new method for obtaining quantitative characterization of industrial metal powder blended mixtures. In addition, the effect of the blending parameters (size ratio, filling ratio, rotation speed and mixing time) on the uniformity of the mixture (without chemical segregation) and the size/population agglomerations, using fine (T123) and extra-fine Ni (T110) powders in the Fe-2wt percent Ni blended powder mixture, will be explained. Blending speed and volume filling ratio were found to be the most predominant factors for the chemical homogeneity of the mixture. Size ratio was found to be the most significant factor influencing the area of aggregates. Very fine Ni (T110) was shown to have better dispersion in the mixture and a tendency to form smaller aggregates.