Development and comparison of powder production processes of novel high strength FeMnAlC alloy for AM applications

In this proposed effort, MRL will explore several powder production techniques to produce a new FeMnAlC based steel powder. This material is in high demand by the Army for ground vehicle repair by additive manufacturing as well as armor applications. Commercially, there is high interest in the material for his high impact resistance. To date, there is no commercially available means to obtain the powder for additively manufactured parts. MRL will work with Tosoh to optimize the powder production of this alloy. Tosoh has considerable experience in state-of-the-art powder production techniques. Results from these techniques will be compared to the in-house production at MRL optimized for the specific chemical composition of the desired powder. After the powder production has been optimized a full powder characterization will take place including MRL’s unique algorithm for powder characterization. Powder characteristics will be incorporated into the calibration of MRL’s ICME based digital twin to link powder characteristics and processing parameters to final part performance. After showing the feasibility of additvely manufacturing FeMnAlC parts from the optimized powder production technique, a batch of powder will be provided to the Army at the end of Phase 1.