Preparation of Spherical Titanium Powder by RF Plasma and Its Application in Powder Injection Molding

The hydrogenated dehydrogenation（HDH） titanium powder with irregular morphology was spheroidized by RF plasma.The effects of carrier gas flow,powder feeding rate and sheath gas flow on the morphology and properties of titanium powder were studied.In addition,powder injection molding（MIM） experiments were carried out with raw HDH titanium powder and spheroidized HDH titanium powder as raw material respectively,and the microstructure,physical and chemical properties of the sintered samples were studied.The results show that the powder characteristics of spherical titanium powder prepared by RF plasma spheroidization technology are greatly improved compared with those of the HDH titanium powder.In the preparation process,the powder feeding rate,carrier gas flow rate,sheath gas flow rate and other factors have a great influence on the spheroidization of the powder.The MIM sample prepared from the spherical titanium powder has better performance than the MIM sample prepared from the HDH titanium powder.