Characterization and Improvement of Powder Properties Through Plasma Spheroidization for use in the Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process

<p>"This research was conducted to characterize the powder properties using different characterization techniques to enhance the powder behavior in the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) process. One of the shortcomings of LPBF process is the high cost of gas-atomized powder feedstock. To overcome this downside, the cheaper water-atomized powder was characterized and used in LPBF process, and its performance was compared with those of gas-atomized powder. Also, the plasma spheroidization process was used to improve the powder characteristics; if the spheroidized powder could function as well as the virgin powder, plasma spheroidization process could be applied to the used powders to recycle them to a virgin-like state. In addition, due to the recent increasing implementation of copper powder in LPBF, the impact of plasma spheroidization on the copper powder used in LPBF was investigated, both numerically and experimentally. Furthermore, a powder spreading setup was designed and fabricated to study the fundamental characteristic of powder spread ability, which plays an important role in the efficiency of LPBF process"--Abstract, p. iv</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering

Grantor

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Author dc:creator

• Sehhat, M. Hossein

• Additive Manufacturing
• Design of Experiments
• Laser Powder Bed Fusion
• Plasma Spheroidization
• Powder Characterization
• Statistical Analysis
• Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/doctoral_dissertations/3264

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsmine.mst.edu:doctoral_dissertations-4269