Abstract
The race to electrify, miniaturize technologies and decarbonize industrial processes is fuelling growing demand for high value-added materials. At the heart of this transformation is powder engineering.
Powder engineering involves all operations that transform metallic, mineral or chemical materials into fine particles smaller than 100 µm, up to nano powders. This field has become a strategic area in the mining and metallurgy industries, helping extract as much value as possible from critical resources, while meeting the highest standards of performance, purity, traceability and sustainability.
Designing these powders requires precise control over their size, particle size distribution, shape and reactivity, all while complying with the health and safety standards specific to each powder and managing the technological risks of new approaches. This complexity represents a major technical and economic challenge.
Each powder production technology comes with specific constraints, such as inerting atmospheres, dust explosion risks, real-time particle size control, cross-contamination management, material handling techniques and selection of compatible engineering materials. A rigorous, multidisciplinary engineering design approach becomes essential .
The example of titanium powder design solution is discussed in this paper. Titanium is used in the aerospace industry, for 3D printing to produce very complex parts. The titanium powder for the 3D printing is an atomized combustible powder that can be explosive.. In fact, the titanium powder properties change with each production step. The feed material is a stable titanium wire, but the atomized powder (0-250um) is combustible. The 3D printers have specific criteria of powder size, oxygen content, particle shape and contaminants. To meet printer requirements, the bulk atomized powder needs to be sieved and homogenized. One potential major problem is the reactivity of the small titanium powder. The smaller is the powder, more reactive it is. A dust cloud of fine titanium powder needs only a static spark to ignite and generate a deflagration. Sieving and homogenizing operation are generating a perpetual dust cloud due to the constant movement of the powder. To mitigate the risk of explosion, an inerting system has been designed by the author to monitor the environment in the equipment and shut it off if the safe operating conditions are lost. Also, an interactive ventilation has been developed to detect the presence of a dust cloud to stop the ventilation and send a shut off signal to the electrical equipment of the powder treatment area while the dust cloud is settling down.
As the demand for strategic materials grows, producing high-value-added powders requires strict control over every manufacturing parameter. This makes powder engineering a key skill that supports innovation, optimizes industrial performance, fosters growth and addresses the new challenges of sustainable transformation.