An assembly and method for producing powder are provided. The assembly includes a melting chamber, an atomizing vessel, and a powder processing device. The melting chamber includes a crucible, a tundish, and a filtering device. The crucible is arranged for melting a material. The crucible and tundish are configured for providing a flow path for the melted material from the crucible into the tundish. The filtering device is arranged in the flow path. The tundish is connected to an atomizing nozzle. The atomizing nozzle is configured to direct molten material from the tundish towards and into the atomizing vessel. The atomizing vessel comprises an outlet which is configured to extract solidified, atomized particles of the formerly molten material from the atomizing vessel. The powder processing device includes one or more separation units which are arranged for outputting one or more powders from the atomized particles.

A load lock system for manufacturing a metal alloy using a feed material includes a process chamber having a controlled atmosphere, a feed chamber in flow communication with the process chamber having controlled atmosphere capabilities configured to contain a quantity of the feed material, and a collection chamber in flow communication with the process chamber having controlled atmosphere capabilities configured to collect the metal alloy manufactured in the process chamber. The system also includes a gate valve between the process chamber and the feed chamber configured to either allow passage of the feed material between the chambers, or to seal the process chamber from the feed chamber. The system also includes a discharge valve between the process chamber and the collection chamber configured to either allow passage of the metal alloy between the chambers, or to seal the process chamber from the collection chamber.

A method for preparing a rare earth aluminum alloy powder applicable for additive manufacturing includes: heating and melting aluminum ingots into an aluminum melt; adding required alloy elements to the aluminum melt to obtain an alloy melt in which the alloy elements are present in the following preset percentages by weight: 1.00% to 10.00% of Ce, 0.05% to 8.00% of Mg, 0.10% to 7.50% of Y, 0.10% to 2.50% of Zr, less than 0.1% of impurities, and the balance aluminum; leading out the alloy melt through a fluid guiding pipe, and impacting the alloy melt with a high-pressure gas flow so that the alloy melt is atomized into fine droplets under an action of surface tension, and solidified into spherical alloy powder; and collecting the spherical alloy powder in a vacuum collector, and screening and drying the spherical alloy powder to obtain the rare earth aluminum alloy powder.

A load lock system for manufacturing a metal alloy using a feed material includes a process chamber having a controlled atmosphere, a feed chamber in flow communication with the process chamber having controlled atmosphere capabilities configured to contain a quantity of the feed material, and a collection chamber in flow communication with the process chamber having controlled atmosphere capabilities configured to collect the metal alloy manufactured in the process chamber. The system also includes a gate valve between the process chamber and the feed chamber configured to either allow passage of the feed material between the chambers, or to seal the process chamber from the feed chamber. The system also includes a discharge valve between the process chamber and the collection chamber configured to either allow passage of the metal alloy between the chambers, or to seal the process chamber from the collection chamber.

An aluminum particle group composed of aluminum particles, as observed in an image thereof obtained through a scanning electron microscope, has an average circularity of 0.75 or more, and an average particle diameter of D.sub.50 of 10 m or more and less than 100 m, and satisfies A3B and also satisfying D<C where A represents the number of aluminum particles having a diameter of less than 5 m, B represents the number of aluminum particles having a diameter of 10 m or more, C represents the number of aluminum particles with no satellite, and D represents the number of aluminum particles having satellites.

A provision module (2) for providing additive manufacturing powder comprises: a main hopper (29) for storing additive manufacturing powder, the main hopper (29) being designed to be connected to a manufacturing module (4) configured to additively manufacture an object from the powder located in the main hopper (29); an inlet (211) of the provision module (2) designed to be connected to the manufacturing module (4) and to receive powder located in the manufacturing module (4); a glovebox (25) designed to receive a container (58), the glovebox (25) being able to be closed in a sealed manner; a supply circuit configured to transfer powder located in the glovebox (25) to the main hopper (29); and an extraction circuit that is different from the supply circuit and is configured to transfer additive manufacturing powder from the inlet (211) of the provision module (2) to the container (58).

A provision module (2) for providing additive manufacturing powder comprises: a main hopper (29) for storing additive manufacturing powder, the main hopper (29) being designed to be connected to a manufacturing module (4) configured to additively manufacture an object from the powder located in the main hopper (29); an inlet (211) of the provision module (2) designed to be connected to the manufacturing module (4) and to receive powder located in the manufacturing module (4); a glovebox (25) designed to receive a container (58), the glovebox (25) being able to be closed in a sealed manner; a supply circuit configured to transfer powder located in the glovebox (25) to the main hopper (29); and an extraction circuit that is different from the supply circuit and is configured to transfer additive manufacturing powder from the inlet (211) of the provision module (2) to the container (58).