The present invention relates to a metal material used for lamination-shaping.
In the abovementioned technical field, patent literature 1 has disclosed a three-dimensional lamination-shaping technique using a metal powder. In patent literature 1, when melting an alloy powder by using an electron beam, preheating is performed in advance at a temperature which is 50% to 80% of the melting point of the alloy. Non-patent literature 1 has disclosed a technique of manufacturing a three-dimensional shaped object by controlling the intensity and frequency of an electron beam for melting a metal powder.
In electron-beam lamination-shaping as described above, pre-sintering of a metal powder is performed as a measure against charge-up. The temperature of this pre-sintering is desirably as low as possible, because the higher the sintering temperature, the longer the sintering time and the longer the cooling time after the completion of lamination-shaping. In addition, as the sintering temperature rises, bonding between metal particles becomes strong, and this makes the removal of an unnecessary power after lamination-shaping difficult.
Unfortunately, the techniques described in the abovementioned literatures do not take account of a contrivance for decreasing the pre-sintering temperature, particularly, a contrivance for the metal powder.
The present invention enables to provide a technique of solving the above-described problem.
One aspect of the present invention provides a metal powder for lamination-shaping a surface of which has a conductive material coated.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a metal powder for use in metal lamination-shaping, the method comprising coating a surface of a powder of a nickel-based alloy with nickel as a conductive material.
The present invention can decrease a pre-sintering temperature by using a processed metal powder, thereby shortening a lamination-shaping time and facilitating the removal of an unnecessary powder after lamination-shaping.
Example embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. It should be rioted that the relative arrangement of the components, the numerical expressions and numerical values set forth in these example embodiments do not limit the scope of the present invention unless it is specifically stated otherwise.
<Powder of this Example Embodiment>
A powder to be used in this example embodiment is an alloy powder of nickel-based alloy Inconel 718 (registered trademark: Inconel 718/UNS Number N07718), which is used as a material of a metal lamination-shaped object, particularly, a jet engine and rocket part.
The particle diameter range of the abovementioned alloy powder is preferably 10 to 200 μm, more preferably 25 to 150 μm, and further preferably 45 to 105 μm. The smaller the powder particle diameter, the smaller the surface roughness of a lamination-shaped object, and the higher the accuracy. However, if the powder particle diameter is too small, plating becomes difficult to be performed, and charge-up may occur even when plating is performed. On the other hand, if the powder particle diameter is too large, plating is easy to be performed, but the surface roughens after lamination-shaping increases.
Note that the powder to which this example embodiment is applied may also be another metal alloy containing nickel as a main component. The powder also includes another nickel-containing metal alloy, e.g., a metal alloy containing cobalt or iron as a main component. Note that when the powder is another nickel-containing metal alloy, it is only necessary that the total of the nickel plating amount and the nickel content of the metal powder, which is the component value of nickel contained in the powder, satisfies a prescribed value.
<Metal Powder Used for Lamination-Shaping of this Example Embodiment>
In electron beam lamination-shaping, pre-sintering of a metal powder is performed as a measure against charge-up, and the pre-sintering temperature is desirably as low as possible, because the higher the sintering temperature, the longer the sintering time and the longer the cooling time after the completion of lamination-shaping. In addition, as the sintering temperature rises, bonding between metal particles becomes strong, and this makes it difficult that the removal of an unnecessary powder after lamination-shaping.
The pre-sintering temperature as described above can be decreased by increasing the conductivity of the metal powder. This is so because as the conductivity between metal particles increases, the sintering properties when using an electron beam improve, and this facilitates short-time sintering, so the sintering temperature decreases.
In this example embodiment, therefore, a metal powder having improved conductivity and improved sintering properties used for lamination-shaping is manufactured by coating a metal alloy powder with a conductive material.
(Coating Method Using Conductive Material)
In this example embodiment, a metal alloy powder is coated with a conductive metal as a main component of the alloy powder. When the alloy powder is a nickel-based alloy, nickel coating is performed.
A plating method is preferably used as the coating method of this example embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited to the plating method. For example, a hybridization-coating method may also be used.
Note that the conductive material for coating is not limited to the main component of the alloy powder. For example, a nickel-containing alloy containing cobalt or iron as a main component may also be coated with nickel as described above. Furthermore, coating using the conductive material of the alloy powder is not limited to the abovementioned plating method. For example, coating may also be performed by hybridization-coating.
(Coating Results)
The thickness of the conductive material used in coating performed by plating or the hybridization-coating method and the nickel thickness range of this example embodiment are preferably 0.1 to 1 μm, and more preferably 0.3 μm or more. If the coating thickness is less than 0.1 μm, coating cannot evenly be performed, so the resistance does not decrease. If the thickness exceeds 1 μm, the decrease in resistance by the plating effect remains unchanged.
(Improvement of Conductivity and Decrease in Sintering Temperature)
The electrical resistance value/electrical resistivity of the metal powder coated with the conductive material of this example embodiment have decreased in comparison to that of an uncoated alloy powder. This indicates that the conductivity of the metal powder of this example embodiment improves, so the sintering temperature can be decreased.
Also, in a smoke test, the metal powder coated with the conductive material of this example embodiment has decreased the lower limit of a smoke start temperature on lamination-shaping, if compared to an uncoated alloy powder. More specifically, the lower-limiting temperature was less than 400° C. when using the metal powder of this example embodiment, but exceeded 950° C. when using an uncoated alloy powder.
Accordingly, it was possible to decrease the sintering temperature from 1,150° C. to 600° C.
<Effects of this Example Embodiment>
According to this example embodiment, the following effects can be expected by modifying the surface of the conductive material.
That is, the pre-sintering temperature can be decreased. For example, when performing surface modification on the Inconel 718 powder by using nickel, it was possible to decrease a normal sintering temperature from 1,150° C. to 600° C.
Also, the productivity of the lamination-shaping improved because the overall lamination-shaping time was shortened by decreasing pre-sintering temperature. In addition, by decreasing in pre-sintering temperature, it has become easy to remove an unnecessary powder after lamination-shaping.
Examples 1 to 4 according to this example embodiment and Comparative Example 1 will be explained below.
<Surface Modification Method>
As the surface modification method of coating the surface of an alloy powder, a plating method and deposition processing method of the conductive material were used.
(Plating Apparatus)
“Flow-Thru Plater RP-1” made by Uyemura Co., Ltd. was used in coating by the plating method.
(Surface Processing)
“Hybridization System Model NHS-O” made by NARA MACHINERY CO., Ltd. was used in coating by the deposition processing method.
Table 1 shows the coating generation conditions in Examples 1 to 4.
<Surface Modification Results>
The alloy powder and surface modification state were observed with an SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) and field emission-SEM.
Table 2 shows the coating thickness measurement results in Examples 1 to 3.
<Measurement of Conductivity (Resistance Specified)>
The conductivities of the alloy powder and the metal powder of this example for lamination-shaping were observed by measuring the electrical resistance value/electrical resistivity.
<Measurement Conditions>
Load: constant at 172 g (the weight of a jig)
Temperature: the temperature was changed in accordance with the temperature pattern 440 in
Atmosphere pressure: less than 0.01 Pa
Powder-filled cylinder inner diameter: ϕ10 mm
Powder height: aimed at 10 mm
<Temperature Pattern 440>
(1) Start from room temperature
(2) Heat to 800° C. (heating rate=5° C./min)
(3) Hold at 800° C. for 1 hour
(4) Cool to room temperature (cooling rate=5° C./min)
Table 3 shows the electrical resistance value/electrical resistivity measurement results in Examples 1 to 4 and Comparative Example 1.
Also,
A powder of a nickel-based alloy was coated with nickel by using “Flow-Thru Plater RP-1” made by Uyemura Co., Ltd. under the coating conditions of Example 1 shown in Table 1, thereby producing a metal powder for lamination-shaping.
Example 1 in Table 3 and a line 601 in
A powder of a nickel-based alloy was coated with nickel by using “Flow-Thru Plater RP-1” made by Uyemura Co., Ltd. under the coating conditions of Example 2 shown in Table 1, thereby producing a metal powder for lamination-shaping.
Example 2 in Table 3 and a line 602 in
A powder of a nickel-based alloy was coated with nickel by using “Flow=Thru Plater RP-1” made by Uyemura Co., Ltd. under the coating conditions of Example 3 shown in Table 1, thereby producing a metal powder for lamination-shaping.
Example 3 in Table 3 and a line 603 in
Nickel was deposited on a powder of a nickel-based alloy by using “Hybridization System Model NHS-1” made by NARA MACHINERY CO., Ltd. under the coating conditions of Example 4 shown in Table 1, thereby producing a metal powder for lamination-shaping.
Example 4 in Table 3 shows the electrical resistivity obtained by measuring this metal powder of Example 4 (sample ID: Lot 506341) by the apparatuses shown in
Comparative Example 1 in Table 3 and a line 611 in
<Decrease in Electrical Resistance/Electrical Resistivity>
Table 3,
<Smoke Test>
A smoke test was conducted on a nickel-plated nickel-based alloy and a nickel-based alloy not plated with nickel, in accordance with the baseplate temperature.
Table 4 shows the results of this smoke test.
From the results of the smoke test shown in Table 4,
(1) Ni-plated powders smoked at a baseplate temperature of 350° C.
(2) Unmodified powders smoked at 950° C.
(3) Ni-plated powder (Inconel made by FUKUDA METAL FOIL & POWDER CO., LTD.) did not smoke even at RT (Room Temperature), but Ni-plated powder (Inconel made by A&R CAMBRIDGE LTD.) smoked at 350° C.
(4) In this test, the smoke properties of the reference powder and plated powder were tested, and Ni plating exhibited a smoke suppressing effect.
In the above examples, nickel-based alloy Inconel 718 (registered trademark: Inconel 718/UNS Number N07718) was used as the alloy powder, but the alloy powder was not limited to Inconel 718.
Table 5 shows examples of other alloy powders to which the present invention is applicable. The other alloy powders include other nickel-based alloys, and other metal-based alloys containing nickel at predetermined ratios, e.g., a cobalt-based alloy and iron-based alloy.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/JP2016/088768 | 12/26/2016 | WO | 00 |