(Finance) – An innovative plasma process to produce powders to be used for 3D printing of complex components destined for the aerospace, biomedical and robotics sectors. That’s what i have come up with Enea researchers from the Portici Research Center (Naples), where a was designed and installed prototype plant based on thermal plasma technology.
The technology used – explains Enea in a note – exploits the energy of the plasma to make the powders of irregular shape with high “sphericity”, i.e. with good flowability and compaction capacity, the main requirement for applications in the field of 3D printing but also plasma spray.
“The use of a source with a high energy density such as plasma – he explains Sergio Galvagno, researcher at the Enea Laboratory of Nanomaterials and devices – enables fast processes and high production flexibility. This makes it possible to create on-demand products with rapid production changes, but also to carry out processing at times when energy costs are lower, reduce inventories and minimize waste production”.
The experimentation was conducted on powders of Alumina and SS316L Steel in an irregular shape with the aim of exploring and identifying the best treatment parameters for the production process.
“The growing diffusion of 3D printing techniques continues Galvagno – brought great interest towards the development of printing materials. Powders, and in particular metallic ones, constitute a rapidly growing market whose production follows different processes depending on the raw materials used and the properties that must be conferred on them”.
The research infrastructure has been developed by Enea over the years and will be employed in future research programs to test the process on new materials and improve the plant’s production efficiency.