Eddy current powder separator for 3d printing metal powder classification

Abstract

The invention discloses an eddy current powder separator for 3D printing metal powder classification, which belongs to the technical field of powder material classification and includes a powder selection chamber provided with a primary air inlet and a coarse powder outlet, and a powder separation chamber rotatably connected to the powder selection chamber. The rotating shaft, the cage rotor fixed on the rotating shaft and located in the powder selection chamber, the driving device for driving the rotation of the shaft, the powder selection chamber is connected with a gas collection chamber, and the inside of the powder selection chamber is fixed with an injection hole. Air distribution plate, the fine powder outlet is provided on the air collection chamber; the rotating shaft is connected to the air collection chamber in rotation, and the other end is rotatably connected to the air distribution plate; the end surface of the cage rotor near the air collection chamber is fixed with a spreading plate , The powder selection chamber is fixed with a feed inlet located above the spreading plate, a fixed baffle arranged along the circumference of the cage rotor, and an adjustable baffle located between the fixed baffle and the cage rotor that can be adjusted up and down. The invention can directly use the eddy current powder separator and its principle, spread materials evenly, have strong air flow force, and can classify metal powder with high precision.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention belongs to the field of classification of metal powder materials, and relates to a powder classifier, in particular to an eddy current classifier for 3D printing metal powder classification. Background technique [0002] After years of development, 3D printing technology has gradually been applied in mold design and manufacturing, aerospace, material engineering, medical research, culture and art, construction engineering and other industries, and has also attracted widespread attention from all walks of life. For metal laser 3D printing technology, the better the fluidity of the metal powder during the powder spreading process, the more uniform the powder spreading, the better the dimensional accuracy and surface quality of the 3D printed parts, so the physical properties of the metal powder (particle size distribution, sphericity, oxygen content etc.) directly determine the final performance of the print. [0003] The preparation of 3D...

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Problems solved by technology

[0003] The preparation of 3D printing metal powder generally adopts gas atomization technology, and the particle size of the prepared particles generally has a normal distribution, and the fine particles (such as less than 20 μm) are prone to agglomeration due to the large force between particles, resulting in poor fluidity. The prepared metal powder needs to be sieved before it can be used for 3D printing

When the traditional mechanical vibrating screening method is used in the sorting of 3D printing metal powders, it is easy to cause sieve clogging and other phenomena, which seriously affects the production efficiency; the existing eddy current powder separators are widely used in cement, mineral processing, non-metallic catalyst preparation, etc. , Chinese patent ZL201610854452.5 proposes a metal powder classification device and usage method. The powder enters the eddy current powder separator from the powder storage tank through the screw feeder, and is controlled by adjusting the speed of the classification wheel (cage rotor) and the air intake. The particle size distribution of coarse powder materials collected by the powder classifier has high production efficiency, but the structure is complex and the manufacturing cost is high; Chinese invention patent application 201910734416.9 proposes a screening method for 3D printing powder, using eddy current powder classifier (also known as airflow classifier) ​​to remove ultrafine particles from the powder

However, the particle density of 3D printing metal powder (such as titanium powder, tantalum powder, etc.) is much larger than that of non-metallic powders such as cement and calcium carbonate. When the particle size is the same, the metal powder has a large mass, which requires a strong airflow force to Realize high-efficiency separation of metal powder, so it is difficult to directly use the existing eddy current powder separator to achieve high-precision classification of metal powder

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