ON-LINE SENSOR FOR POWDERED METAL PROCESSING

NON-INTRUSIVE, ON-LINE SENSORS OF MOLTEN METAL ATOMIZATION HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO IMPROVE POWDER YIELDS THROUGH IMPROVEDPROCESS CONTROL. THE PREDICTION AND CONTROL OF POWDERED METAL PRODUCTION PROCESSES ARE LARGELY BASED ON OPERATOR EXPERIENCE. THE COMPLEX RELATIONS BETWEEN THE OPERATING VARIABLES CONTROLLING POWDER YIELD, POWDER QUALITY AND FINISHED PRODUCT QUALITY ARE NOT YET WELL UNDERSTOOD. POWDER QUALITY REFERS TO POWDER SIZE, POWDER SIZE DISTRIBUTION, AND THE POWDER MICROSTRUCTURE. RAPID SOLIDIFICATION WILL BE INCREASED BY THE CONTROLLED PRODUCTION OF SMALLER POWDER SIZES; IMPROVED POWDER MICROSTRUCTURE AND CHEMICAL HOMOGENEITY ARE DIRECTLY RELATEDTO SOLIDIFICATION RATES. CURRENT POWDERED METAL PRODUCTION MONITORING PRACTICES ARE LIMITED TO VISUAL OBSERVATION OF SPRAYS BY AN OPERATOR DURING THE PRODUCTION PROCESS AND A QUANTITATIVE SIEVE ANALYSIS AFTER PRODUCTION IS COMPLETED. PRESENTLY THERE IS NO ON-LINE SENSOR TO QUANTITATIVELY ASSESS POWDER QUALITY DURING THE COURSE OF THE BATCH PRODUCTION PROCESS. INSITEC HAS EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE IN THEDESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF NON-INTRUSIVE, IN SITU INSTRUMENTATION FOR PARTICLE SIZE, CONCENTRATION, AND VELOCITY MEASUREMENTS IN FOSSIL ENERGY COMBUSTORS. THROUGH A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING AND MATERIALS SCIENCE AT CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY, INSITEC'S PARTICLE MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUE WILL BEEXTENDED TO A NEW APPLICATION, PROCESS SENSORS FOR MOLTEN METAL ATOMIZATION.