In high-end manufacturing sectors such as aerospace and energy power, Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) technology is playing an increasingly vital role. Its core advantages for producing large metal components—high material utilization, short manufacturing cycles, and significant cost-effectiveness—are key drivers. However, the final quality of parts produced by this technology is intrinsically linked to the performance of the metal spherical powder used. Traditional Gas Atomized (GA) powder, due to its inherent limitations, has become a bottleneck hindering further improvements in the performance of LMD components.
GA powder typically exhibits a rough surface, numerous satellite particles, and, more critically, contains a large number of hollow particles along with relatively high oxygen and nitrogen content. These defects prevent gas from fully escaping before solidification, leading to the formation of numerous pore defects. In contrast, metal spherical powder produced by Plasma Rotating Electrode Process (PREP) technology offers a far superior solution.
PREP Metal Spherical Powder from Saishu Technology – The Essential Choice for High-Performance LMD
Metal spherical powder manufactured via the Plasma Rotating Electrode Process (PREP) possesses:
Exceptional sphericity and a smooth surface, ensuring excellent flowability and consistent powder feeding stability.
An almost complete absence of hollow particles, fundamentally eliminating the pore defects caused by them.
Significantly lower oxygen and nitrogen content, effectively reducing impurity inclusions and enhancing material purity.
Research confirms that under identical LMD process parameters, using PREP metal spherical powder can reduce single-track porosity to a remarkable 0.04%, and bulk deposition porosity to as low as 0.02%. This represents a reduction of several tens of times compared to GA powder. This conclusively demonstrates that PREP metal spherical powder is the ideal material for achieving high-density, high-performance LMD components.
In the production of metal spherical powder, Saishu Technology (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. (formerly Guangzhou Sailong Additive Manufacturing Co., Ltd.) employs advanced PREP technology and implements comprehensive contamination-free process control. This ensures a hollow particle rate approaching zero and extremely low levels of oxygen and nitrogen impurities.
Furthermore, Saishu Technology has established a full traceability system from raw materials to finished products. Adhering to stringent aviation-grade inspection standards, they utilize rigorous sieving and multiple non-destructive testing techniques. This guarantees highly consistent chemical composition, particle size distribution, and physical properties for every powder batch, providing customers with reliable material assurance for industrial-scale production.