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By Shanghai Truer Background Molybdenum has excellent properties such as high temperature strength, good electrical and thermal conductivity, good heat and fatigue resistance, and low toxicity. It is used in aerospace, nuclear industry, electronics industry, and medical fields. However, its high melting point, difficult forming, and poor processing performance significantly affect its wider application. With the advancement of technology, additive manufacturing processes have emerged, providing a new means for the deep processing of molybdenum. Potential additive manufacturing processes include: Laser Engineered Net Shaping(LENS), Direct Energy Deposition(DED), Powder Bed Selective Melting (PBF-SLM, PBF-SEBM), etc. These process methods use metal molybdenum or molybdenum alloy powder as raw materials and manufacture parts using different energy sources. In order to obtain high-quality, spherical molybdenum powder or molybdenum alloy powder that meets production requirements, plasma rotating electrode atomization process is a good choice. Experiments Produce a batch of molybdenum powder using our company’s PREP equipment for performance analysis. Table 1 Main Process Parameters Current(A) Rotating speed (rpm) Feeding speed(mm/min) 2400-2700 12000-17000 0.8-1.0 Results and Analysis The particle size of the molybdenum powder produced conforms to the unimodal normal distribution characteristics, with D50=85μm. The powder particle size is mainly distributed between 60-100μm (more than 80%). The

Adapted from B01, Issue 23, 2023 of World Metal Herald Background As is well known, due to its excellent high-temperature strength, molybdenum metal has become an indispensable raw material in many industries. In practical applications, sometimes complex shaped components are required, but they are not easy to manufacture. Generally speaking, 3D printing technology can solve the manufacturing problems of complex components such as heat exchangers. When using molybdenum metal for 3D printing, the produced parts often have certain defects. In order to solve these defect problems, molybdenum+titanium carbide metal based composite powder was produced through the alloying effect of titanium carbide, which resulted in a turning point in the 3D printing effect. For example, using molybdenum titanium carbide to make complex shaped prototype devices such as heat exchangers is something that cannot be achieved by any other conventional manufacturing method. Advantages of Molybdenum and its Alloys In the next 30 years, it is expected that the global demand for electricity will double from the current level. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced below current levels while expanding energy production. There will be various solutions to increase power supply without increasing emissions, but

With the official approval of the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) on July 20, 2023, the titanium alloy acetabular cup system developed by our first partner using the electron beam 3D printing equipment (Y150) produced by our company has been approved. So far, more than 10 customers in the medical field are using our company’s full industry chain resources such as electron beam 3D printing powder raw materials, equipment (Y150, Y150Plus, T200), and processes to develop orthopedic implant products and register Type 3 of medical devices. This marks the establishment of an independent, controllable, and innovative research and production system for domestically produced electron beam 3D printed orthopedic implants. The printing materials used include titanium alloy, tantalum metal, zirconium niobium alloy, covering all orthopedic application scenarios such as standardized and personalized hip joints, knee joints, spine, and maxillofacial. In the process of cooperating with our customers, our company fully leverages the advantages of the entire industry chain of electron beam 3D printing, providing comprehensive one-stop services including raw material support, equipment operation, software support, scanning strategy, and process optimization. We also assist customers in verifying raw materials, equipment, and processes. The dimensional accuracy, mechanical properties, chemical composition, and pore structure characteristics

Edited based on https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214860424003348 Section snippets Abstract Diamond composites exhibit exceptional hardness, chemical stability and thermal conductivity, but poor machinability limits their applications. This article reports the use of electron beam melting technique (SEBM, one typical powder bed fusion technology) for 3D-structured NiCu/diamond composites, resulting in a high relative density (>95 %) and avoidance of graphitization, thereby offering overall excellent mechanical properties. Detailed analyses of the interactions between electron beams and NiCu/diamonds reveal that adjusting the linear energy density (LED) can control densification and local graphitization behavior. A dimensionless volumetric energy density (DVED) range derived from a semi-quantitative model has been proposed. The optimized values of DVED (4.1＜ED*＜5.1) are useful guideline for producing metal/diamond composites with complex 3D geometries for various engineering applications. Introduction The powder bed fusion (PBF) and directed energy deposition (DED) represents typical additive manufacturing (AM) techniques for producing metal and composite materials. These methods are emerging across diverse industries because they can achieve near-net shaping, thus minimizing material wastage and facilitating fabrication of complex-structured components. This is particularly significant for brittle materials, as it greatly reduces the need for machining. Diamond composites, valued for their ultra-high hardness, outstanding wear resistance, and excellent thermal conductivity, find widespread applications in telecommunications, consumer electronics, aerospace, transportation, mining, mechanical engineering, and other fields.

Edited based on “STANFORD ADVANCED MATERIALS” (powder.samaterials.com) The Plasma Rotating Electrode Process is known for its high sphericity and low oxygen content. The Plasma Gas Atomization is suitbale for preparing metal powders with high sphericity and uniform particle size. What are the advantages of the Plasma Process? Plasma powder manufacturing is a relatively new process for the production of powders whereby plasma acts as a heat source to provide energy for metal powders production. Plasma powder manufacturing technology offers significant advantages in the field of metal powder preparation due to its high temperature and high energy density characteristics. The main technological trends with plasma for metal powder manufacturing are Plasma Rotating Electrode Process (PREP), Plasma Gas Atomization (PA) and Plasma Evaporation Condensation at present. 1. High Purity During the plasma powder manufacturing process, materials are processed in an inert gas environment (such as argon or helium), avoiding contact with reactive gases like oxygen, vapour. This significantly reduces oxidation and contamination of the powder. 2. High Sphericity Plasma powder manufacturing methods, such as plasma atomization and plasma rotating electrode process, can produce powder particles with high sphericity. 3. Suitable for Various Materials The plasma process can handle various materials, including metals, alloys, oxides,

In order to achieve effective design of additive manufacturing nickel-base high-temperature alloys with good usability, a new type of nickel-base high-temperature alloy was developed by combining effective component screening and local element segregation, which has excellent formability, wide process applicability, and low defect density. Through first principles calculations and experimental characterization, it has been confirmed that controlling the distribution of Boron (B) at the interface of MC carbides and γ phase matrix can effectively suppressing the formation of cracks induced by Boron (B) segregation. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties of this alloy are comparable or even superior to existing traditional high-temperature alloys. This method solves the problem of element segregation in additive manufacturing process and can be extended to control the distribution of other key elements, providing a new approach for designing new Ni high-temperature alloys with printability and balanced mechanical properties. Edited from “Robust additive manufacturable Ni superalloys designed by the integrated optimization of local elemental segregation and cracking susceptibility criteria”on 《Acta Materialia》 Ni-base high-temperature alloys, which can be used in aviation and aerospace applications, have become potential materials for additive manufacturing (AM), and the components produced have complex geometric shapes and sizes. However, high cooling rates and spatially variable temperature

SEBM additive manufacturing technology is one of PBF technologies, which use electronic beam as heating resource. The principle is to use high-energy electron beams to scan and heat the metal powders at high speed under vacuum protection, melt layer by layer, stack layer by layer, then directly form the required components. This technology has the characteristics of high energy utilization efficiency, fast scanning speed, high forming efficiency and high powder bed temperature during the forming process, particularly suitable for forming the parts which require the forming process in a vacuum environment, and the material with high melting point, high activity, brittleness, and difficulty in processing, as well as high reflection for laser. and it has been widely used in the fields such as biomedical, aerospace, and automotive. Compared to laser selective melting forming technology (SLM), powder bed electron beam 3D printing technology (SEBM) has the following significant advantages: Series production of standardized bone trabecular acetabular cups by SEBM printing technology: Sailong AM independently develops electron beam additive manufacturing equipment and processes and help our customer to establishe a standardized bone trabecular acetabular cup batch additive manufacturing production line for medical implants. With domestically produced additive manufacturing equipment, raw materials, and

Mr. Chen Huanming’s team investigated the micro-structure characteristics of a kind of superallowy powders (similar to Rene 95) prepared by plasma rotating electrode processing (PREP) by using SEM and calculated the relation between cooling rate and particle size distribution. The results indicate that the solidification micro-structure of particle surface are dendrite and cellular structures. With decreasing of particle size, the particle interior micro-structures change from dendrite in major to cellular and micro-crystal structures. This has important guiding significance for producing high-quality metal powders using the PREP method.