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AssigneeMetaSphere Technology AB
InventorsRuslan Alekseevich Shevchenko, Andrey Pavlovich Chukanov, Boris Vladimirovich Safronov, Yuri Gennadievich Nadezhdin, Alexander Yurievich Vakhrushin
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A spherical tungsten carbide powder is characterized by that the material has a microhardness higher than 3600 kgf/mm2, and that the powder has an apparent density from 9.80 to 11.56 g/cm3. A method for the manufacture of a powder comprises the steps: a) providing a chamber comprising a rotatable crucible, b) adding material into said rotatable crucible, c) melting the material using a plasma arc discharge, d) rotating the crucible to atomize the molten material to form liquid droplets, with subsequent cooling of the droplets to obtain a powder, wherein the material added into said rotatable crucible is heated to a temperature above 40% of the melting temperature of the material before it enters the crucible. It is possible to reduce the current required for melting the stock. Heat losses are decreased, and the spherical powder obtained during atomization becomes more homogeneous in its composition and structure. The cost is reduced.
A method for the manufacture of a spherical powder comprising tungsten carbide, said method comprising the steps:
A device suitable for manufacturing a powder, comprising a chamber, a lid, a movable plasma torch, a cylindrical cooled crucible, a collecting device for the manufactured powder, wherein the device comprises a heating device for the material to be added to the crucible and wherein the heating device is adapted to heat the material to a temperature from 40% to 80% of the melting temperature of the material before it enters the crucible.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.