linde GASES FOR USE IN Additive Manufacturing BY POWDER PRODUCERS

The right atmosphere for powder production

Additive manufacturing is also referred to as 3D Printing. It is a technology that allows manufacturers to produce three-dimensional parts from a polymer or a metal. In order to create metal parts through the additive manufacturing process, it is important to ensure that the powder metals meet specifications and are free of defects, prior to moving on to the next step. The proper atmosphere is critical to the quality and final composition of powder metal production.

When making many specialty metal powders, argon is used to provide the most inert atmosphere. Due to the high temperatures often required, the use of oxygen and sometimes nitrogen will react with many advanced materials, leading to the formation of metallic oxides and nitrides. Oxides and nitrides should be avoided to reduce the risk of defects in the final product.

Linde offers argon, nitrogen, and hydrogen for all gas applications related to the powder metal industry, including powder metal manufacturing.

Atmospheres for Powder Metal Production (895KB)

Learn more about Linde's gas applications for metals and materials processing

HIP has been a beneficial step for additive manufacturing powder and parts because the use of high heat and high pressure reduces the porosity of metals and increases the density. These are two characteristics ideal in an additive manufactured part. In order for the HIP process to deliver quality results, it is important to maintain proper atmosphere control. You can obtain an inert atmosphere by using argon or nitrogen to avoid any possible chemical reactions that may negatively affect your parts. 

Linde has the experience and product offerings necessary to properly address the challenges you may be facing with your HIP process. Our team can review your current operations, analyze furnace requirements, evaluate gas consumption, compression needs, and buffering for HIP processes to recommend and properly properly design a gas supply system that gives you quality results. 

Our in-depth knowledge in powder metallurgy and atmosphere control also feeds into the 3D printing process, where we help our customers find the perfect gases for their 3D printing step. Today, three-dimensional object printing is becoming more common and Linde has a wide array of gases to meet those demands. These gases include the basics, such as nitrogen and argon to specialty mixes and high purity types. 

We also offer gas supply systems in a variety of sizes to align with your gas volume requirements. From cylinder quantities to meet your small batch fabrication to large merchant systems to meet your serial production, we are here to help you select the gases and supply systems that will help optimize your automated 3D printing technology. 

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