Current Situation and Development Prospect of Preparation Technologies for Spherical Titanium and Titanium Alloy Powder

Preparation technologies of spherical titanium and titanium alloy powder,including traditional gas atomization （GA）,ultrasonic atomization,rotating electrode centrifugal atomization （REP）,plasma rotating electrode process （PREP）,plasma atomization （PA）,RF plasma torch atomization （TEKNA）and newly-invented granulation-sintering-deoxygenation （GSD）,were introduced and compared in this paper.It is proposed that the GSD method will be the mainstream for spherical titanium and titanium alloy powder preparation because of its advantages of low cost and non-strict requirements for equipment,which will finally decrease the cost of rapid prototyping for titanium and titanium alloys and promote the popularization and application of manufacturing technologies for additive materials.