Nanocomposite powder for powder-bed-based additive manufacturing obtained by dry particle coating

Mathieu Soulier (1) , A. Benayad (1) , L. Teulon (2) , Y. Oudart (2) , S. Senol (3) , K. Vanmeensel (3)

1 DTNM - Département des Technologies des NanoMatériaux
2 Nanomakers (Rambouillet)
3 KU Leuven - Technologie campus Gent - KU Leuven

Several dry processing techniques are assessed to elaborate metallic nanocomposite powders dedicated to powder-bed-based (PBB) additive manufacturing as laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF) and Binder Jetting (BJ). Electrostatic assembly of nanosized silicon carbide (35nm) particles at the surface of gas atomized aluminium powders (15-53µm) is performed from laboratory scale to semi-industrial scale using rotative drum mixer, low shear to high shear paddle mixer and acoustic mixer. The high shear paddle and the laboratory scale acoustic mixers are identified as the most efficient techniques for dry coating, with a complete adhesion of 1 wt% SiC nanoparticles, combined with short mixing time and absence of host particle deformation. The coating leads to a drastic increase of starting host powder measured by avalanche angle and Carney funnel as well as an improvement of the powder apparent density. Experimental results also study how the surface oxidation of the guest particles is affecting the coating efficiency.

Keywords: Dry coating; Powder functionalization; Electrostatic assembly; Additive manufacturing; Powder spreading; Nanoparticles

Domains: Material chemistry

Mathieu Soulier, A. Benayad, L. Teulon, Y. Oudart, S. Senol, et al.. Nanocomposite powder for powder-bed-based additive manufacturing obtained by dry particle coating. Powder Technology, 2022, 404, pp.117474. ⟨10.1016/j.powtec.2022.117474⟩. ⟨cea-03764332⟩