A system and method for treating additive powder includes a reactor configured for receiving a large volume of additive powder. An evacuation subsystem removes injected or residual gases from the reactor chamber by purging the chamber with an inert gas or drawing a vacuum within the chamber. A heating assembly raises the reactor content temperature of the reactor chamber while the additive powder is continuously stirred. A gas mixture including a small amount of reactive gas is injected into the reactor chamber to modify the surface chemistry of the additive powder before the additive powder is slowly cooled down.

A system and method for treating additive powder includes a reactor configured for receiving a large volume of additive powder. An evacuation subsystem removes injected or residual gases from the reactor chamber by purging the chamber with an inert gas or drawing a vacuum within the chamber. A heating assembly raises the reactor content temperature of the reactor chamber while the additive powder is continuously stirred. A gas mixture including a small amount of reactive gas is injected into the reactor chamber to modify the surface chemistry of the additive powder before the additive powder is slowly cooled down.

In a three-dimensional (3D) printing method example, a metallic build material is applied. A binder fluid is selectively applied on at least a portion of the metallic build material. The binder fluid includes a liquid vehicle and polymer particles dispersed in the liquid vehicle. The application of the metallic build material and the selective application of the binder fluid are repeated to create a patterned green part. The patterned green part is heated to at about a melting point of the polymer particles to activate the binder fluid and create a cured green part. The cured green part is heated to a thermal decomposition temperature of the polymer particles to create an at least substantially polymer-free gray part. The at least substantially polymer-free gray part is heated to a sintering temperature to form a metallic part.

An example of a method, for three-dimensional (3D) printing, includes applying a build material and patterning at least a portion of the build material. The patterning includes selectively applying a wetting amount of a binder fluid on the at least the portion of the build material and subsequently selectively applying a remaining amount of the binder fluid on the at least the portion of the build material. An area density in grams per meter square meter (gsm) of the wetting amount ranges from about 2 times less to about 30 times less than area density in gsm of the remaining amount.

A device for forming spherical particles may include a receiving chamber having a heating portion and a cooling portion. Wire segments may travel in a free fall through the receiving chamber. While falling through the heating portion, wire segments may be heated to form spherical particles in response to exposure to microwave electromagnetic radiation. While falling through the cooling portion, formed spherical particles cool.

A device for forming spherical particles may include a receiving chamber having a heating portion and a cooling portion. Wire segments may travel in a free fall through the receiving chamber. While falling through the heating portion, wire segments may be heated to form spherical particles in response to exposure to microwave electromagnetic radiation. While falling through the cooling portion, formed spherical particles cool.

The invention relates to a method for coding metal powder. Said method comprises the following steps: providing a melt, forming a melt stream, spraying the melt stream by means of a spraying fluid, and forming metal powder particles from the melt stream. The method is characterized in that, during the spraying of the melt and/or the spraying fluid, a coding component or a coding gas is added in such a way that the use of the coding component in the metal powder can be detected, wherein the gaseous coding component comprises one or more isotopes of at least one gas and the fraction of the at least one isotope is changed in comparison with the naturally occurring fraction of said isotope in the gas and/or wherein the gaseous coding component contains gaseous alloying elements.

A three-dimensional manufacturing apparatus according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a manufacturing nozzle for melting a metal material with an energy beam while supplying the metal material to form a bead; a cooling medium nozzle for spraying a cooling medium toward a region including the bead in a workpiece so that the region is cooled locally; a temperature detection unit configured to detect at least a temperature of the region; and a control device for controlling at least one of a scanning rate of the cooling medium nozzle or an amount of the cooling medium to be sprayed per unit time based on a detection result from the temperature detection unit.

A three-dimensional manufacturing apparatus according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a manufacturing nozzle for melting a metal material with an energy beam while supplying the metal material to form a bead; a cooling medium nozzle for spraying a cooling medium toward a region including the bead in a workpiece so that the region is cooled locally; a temperature detection unit configured to detect at least a temperature of the region; and a control device for controlling at least one of a scanning rate of the cooling medium nozzle or an amount of the cooling medium to be sprayed per unit time based on a detection result from the temperature detection unit.

An example of a kit for three-dimensional (3D) printing includes a host metal and fumed flow additive aggregates to be mixed with the host metal. The fumed flow additive aggregates include flow additive nanoparticles and partially fused necks between at least some of the flow additive nanoparticles. Each of the flow additive nanoparticles consists of a metal containing compound that is reducible to an elemental metal in a reducing environment at a reducing temperature less than or equal to a sintering temperature of the host metal.