Method and apparatus for producing powders

A method of manufacturing metal powders by atomization, said method comprising the steps of:

• continuously melting material to be atomized in a plasma produced by a high frequency electromagnetic field in a coil with one or more inductive turns, causing said material to flow vertically down to a location of most concentrated plasma and coaxially with the inductive turns in order to be superheated before contacting a dispersion head rotating at high speed, dispersing molten material thus created in atomized form into an envelope of plasma-generating gases, and then quenching the atomized material by passing the material through a cooling vortex produced by a ring of nozzles situated at the periphery of an envelope of the plasma-generating gases, wherein an axis of the envelope is parallel to an axis of the dispersion head, and collecting cooled powder material thus obtained.

A method of manufacturing metal powders by atomization, comprising the steps of:

• continuously melting metal material to be atomized, which material flows vertically and generally co-axially with respect to a plasma furnace down towards a dispersion head rotating at a high speed for the purpose of dispersing molten material thereby created in atomized form into an envelope of plasma-generating gases, then quenching the atomized material, and collecting cooled powder material thereby obtained, wherein the molten material is atomized by being dispersed by friction along a top surface of the dispersion head and is quenched by said atomized material passing through a cooling vortex situated at the periphery of the envelope of plasma-generating gases, wherein the gases produced during quenching are liquified in a condenser and the powder material is recovered with a fraction of the liquified gases to form a mixture in at least one container, and enabling the mixture to be maintained in a liquid or a solid state.