Spheroidization of Iron Powder in Microwave and Hybrid Plasma Torches

The process of porous iron powder spheroidization with a particle size from 45 to 85 μm is investigated in the microwave discharge and joint microwave and DC discharge modes in nitrogen and helium plasma. The powder was prepared by air spraying and annealed in hydrogen. Spraying in plasma results in hollow spheroidized particles with a wall thickness from 1 to 10 μm. The fraction of spheroidized powder particles in their total number is determined. It is revealed that the degree of spheroidization of iron powder particles linearly increases with an increase in the microwave radiation power from 1.5 to 5 kW. The combination of operational conditions of the microwave radiation with the arc discharge is observed when using the hybrid plasmatron mode, which makes it possible to increase the plasma temperature. An almost 100% spheroidization of iron powder is attained with the power ratio of microwave and arc discharges of 1 : 1. The metallographic investigation of spheroidized particles showed that their finite size differs from the initial one approximately tenfold. It is established that, irrespective of the spheroidization mode, the iron powder oxidizes, which is caused by an insufficient degree of purification of plasma-forming gases. The structure of the particle surface when using nitrogen or helium as a plasma-forming gas is different. The experiments show that the application of helium is preferential because the particles have only insignificant roughness in this case when compared with the particle structure when performing spheroidization with the use of nitrogen.