The invention relates to a method for splitting an electrically conductive liquid, in particular a melt jet, comprising the steps providing the electrically conductive liquid which moves in a first direction (12) in the form of a liquid jet (10); and generating high-frequency travelling electromagnetic fields surrounding the liquid jet (10) which travel in the first direction (12) and accelerate the liquid jet (10) in the first direction (12), thereby atomizing the liquid jet (10).

A production method of particulate materials, through centrifugal atomization (CA) is disclosed. The method is suitable for obtaining fine spherical powders with exceptional morphological quality and extremely low content, or even absence of non-spherical-shape particles and internal voids. A appropriate cost effective method for industrial scale production of metal, alloy, intermetallic, metal matrix composite or metal like material powders in large batches is also disclosed. The atomization technique can be extended to other than the centrifugal atomization with rotating element techniques.

A system for creating a second quantity of sinterable powder particles which have sizes falling within a second size range, from a first quantity of sinterable powder particles having sizes falling within a first size range, and where the sizes of the powder particles in the second size range are all larger than those in the first size range. In one embodiment the system has a heating component responsive to a predetermined temperature/time heating profile, which heats the first quantity of powder particles using the temperature/time heating profile, to cause partial sintering of the powder particles, which creates a new plurality of powder particles which have an increased dimension. A movement component is incorporated to at least one of separate the new powder particles from remaining ones of the powder particles of the first quantity of powder particles, or to further process the new plurality of powder particles, such that the new plurality of powder particles represents the second quantity of sinterable powder particles.

A steel powder is provided. The steel powder has a composition of, in wt. %, C 0.05-2.0, Mn 14.0-30.0, Al 5.0-10.0, Cr 3.0-10.0, Si 0.1-2.0, Ti 0.05-0.5, and, as optionals, Ni 0.0-0.2, N 0.0-1.0, O 0.0-0.50, with a balance of Fe and unavoidable impurities. A method of producing the powder is also provided.

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.

Disclosed here is a method for making a nanoporous material, comprising aerosolizing a solution comprising at least one metal salt and at least one solvent to obtain an aerosol, freezing the aerosol to obtain a frozen aerosol, and drying the frozen aerosol to obtain a nanoporous metal compound material. Further, the nanoporous metal compound material can be reduced to obtain a nanoporous metal material.

Disclosed here is a method for making a nanoporous material, comprising aerosolizing a solution comprising at least one metal salt and at least one solvent to obtain an aerosol, freezing the aerosol to obtain a frozen aerosol, and drying the frozen aerosol to obtain a nanoporous metal compound material. Further, the nanoporous metal compound material can be reduced to obtain a nanoporous metal material.

A method for gas atomization of a titanium alloy, nickel alloy, or other alumina (Al.sub.2O.sub.3)-forming alloy wherein the atomized particles are exposed as they solidify and cool in a very short time to multiple gaseous reactive agents for the in-situ formation of a passivation reaction film on the atomized particles wherein the reaction film retains a precursor halogen alloying element that is subsequently introduced into a microstructure formed by subsequent thermally processing of the atomized particles to improve oxidation resistance.

A manufacturing process includes collecting metal chips produced by a subtractive manufacturing processes and sorting the metal chips. The process further includes heating the metal chips to form a melt, removing impurities from the melt, deoxidizing the melt and atomizing the melt to form metal powder. The powder is then used to form a metal part by additive manufacturing or powder metallurgy processes.

An improved method of manufacturing a powder metal material by water, gas, plasma, or rotating disk atomization is provided. The method includes adding at least one additive to a melted metal material before or during the atomization process. The at least one additive forms a protective gas atmosphere surrounding the melted metal material which is at least three times greater than the volume of melt to be treated. The protective atmosphere prevents introduction or re-introduction of contaminants, such as sulfur (S) and oxygen (O.sub.2), into the material. The atomized particles produced include at least one of the following advantages: median circularity of at least 0.60, median roundness of at least 0.60, less internal pores, less internal oxides, and an increased sphericity of the microstructural phases and/or constituents.