Effect of the Molten Metal Stream's Shape on Particle Size Distribution of Water Atomized Metal Powder

Abstract

The current knowledge indicated that water pressure, molten metal temperature, water flow rate and water jet configuration are very important factors which affect on the particle size distribution and shapes of atomized powder. This study aimed to investigate whether the shape of molten affects the particle size of atomized powder. The experiments were the production of copper powder with the fixed atomization process conditions, but varied the shape of molten metal by using two different shapes of tundish nozzle's orifice to make the round and rectangular cross section of molten metal stream. There were three sizes for each orifice shape to determine the rate of production (metal flow rate) at 13 kg/min, 19 kg/min and 26 kg/min. The results showed that at the same flow rate of molten metal the production of flat metal stream from rectangular orifice made higher yield of finer particle, smaller median size (D50) and narrower range of size distribution than the production with the round cross section orifice for every production rates.