Three main preparation methods of titanium alloy powder were compared

1, plasma rotating electrode method
The preparation method is electrode made of metal or alloy, the end face is heated by arc melting into a liquid, under the action of its own high-speed centrifugal force, the liquid is thrown and crushed into small droplets, and then condensed into powder, this process can adjust the electrode speed to control the particle size of the powder, is one of the more ideal spherical powder methods. It has the characteristics of high sphericity, good powder fluidity, high loading density, smooth surface, reliable printing process control, and is not easy to produce precipitated gas, cracks and other defects. However, due to the limitation of centrifugal speed, the prepared titanium alloy powder has coarser particle size, relatively concentrated particle size distribution, high cost and low productivity.

2, plasma wire atomization method
The preparation method is based on different alloy wires as raw materials and processed into spherical powder by technology. It was first independently developed by a Canadian company and has independent manufacturing equipment, which has a certain influence in the industry. The spherical powder fine powder produced by this technology has the advantages of high powder yield, less impurities and high working efficiency, which is suitable for the development of titanium alloy powder, but there are also trace "satellite ball" and a very small amount of adhesion phenomenon, which has no obvious effect on the use performance.

3, gas atomization method
Gas atomization method is the use of high-speed air flow to break the metal liquid flow, rapid solidification after the formation of powder method, this method only needs to overcome the force between liquid metal atoms can make it dispersed, any material that can form a liquid can basically be atomized, the current application of more vacuum atomization method and inert gas atomization method. The titanium alloy powder prepared by gas atomization method has the characteristics of rapid solidification, no hollow particle, good sphericity, etc., but the powder yield is low and the production cost is high. At present, most of the atomization technology used in the country to produce titanium and titanium alloy powder, powder yield is not high.