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US 11,235,385 B2Granted
Reactive metal powders in-flight heat treatment processes
AssigneeAp&C Advanced Powders & Coating Inc.
InventorsFrédéric Larouche, Frédéric Marion, Matthieu Balmayer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
There are provided reactive metal powder in-flight heat treatment processes. For example, such processes comprise providing a reactive metal powder; and contacting the reactive metal powder with at least one additive gas while carrying out said in-flight heat treatment process, thereby obtaining a raw reactive metal powder.
Claims62
A reactive metal powder in-flight heat treatment process comprising:
- contacting a flow of a reactive metal powder with a flow of an in-flight heat treatment process gas mixture within an in-flight heat treatment device, the in-flight heat treatment process gas mixture comprising (i) at least one in-flight heat treatment process gas and (ii) at least one additive gas that is present at a concentration of less than 1000 ppm in said mixture, while carrying out said in-flight heat treatment process to obtain a raw reactive metal powder;
- and
- forming, with said at least one additive gas, a surface layer on said raw reactive metal powder, said raw reactive metal powder with said surface layer thereon, comprises less than 1000 ppm of at least one element from said at least one additive gas,
- wherein said surface layer comprises a first layer and a second layer, said first layer comprising atoms of said heated reactive metal source with atoms and/or molecules of said at least one additive gas, said first layer being a depletion layer deeper and thicker than said second layer, said second layer being a native oxide layer,
- and wherein a particle size distribution of about 10 to about 53 μm of said raw reactive metal powder with said surface layer thereon has a flowability less than 40 s, measured according to ASTM B213.
2 more elements
A reactive metal powder in-flight heat treatment process comprising:
- providing a reactive metal powder;
- contacting said reactive metal powder with an in-flight heat treatment process gas mixture comprising (i) at least one in-flight heat treatment process gas and (ii) at least one additive gas, while carrying out said in-flight heat treatment process to obtain a raw reactive metal powder having a surface layer thereon, wherein contacting the reactive metal powder with the in-flight heat treatment process gas mixture while carrying out said in-flight heat treatment process to obtain the raw reactive metal powder comprises maintaining a chemical composition of the reactive metal powder within a chemical composition limit for the reactive metal powder according to AMS standards;
- and
- optionally sieving said raw reactive metal powder having said surface layer thereon to obtain a powder having predetermined particle size;
- and
- contacting said powder having said surface layer thereon and optionally having said predetermined particle size, with water.
3 more elements
A reactive metal powder in-flight heat treatment process comprising:
- contacting a reactive metal powder with an in-flight heat treatment process gas mixture comprising (i) at least one in-flight heat treatment process gas and (ii) at least one additive gas that is present at a concentration of less than 1000 ppm in said mixture, while carrying out said in-flight heat treatment process to obtain a raw reactive metal powder;
- and
- forming, with said at least one additive gas, a surface layer on said raw reactive metal powder,
- wherein a particle size distribution of about 10 to about 53 μm of said raw reactive metal powder with said surface layer thereon has a flowability less than 40 s, measured according to ASTM B213;
- and
- wherein contacting the reactive metal powder with the in-flight heat treatment process gas mixture while carrying out said in-flight heat treatment process to obtain the raw reactive metal powder comprises maintaining a chemical composition of the reactive metal powder within a chemical composition limit for the reactive metal powder according to AMS standards.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.