In the Press

Elcan Industries Inc., Tuckahoe, New York, USA, has developed a new programme to help its customers with the recycling of Additive Manufacturing powders. The company will guide those new to metal AM with the handling and sieving of these powders, as well as offering assistance on a tolling basis to those not ready to invest in recycling equipment.

Using its proprietary Hi-Sifter technology, Elcan Industries can help companies recycle their AM powders at the desired powder specification. This means, for example, if the powder is a 44 µm powder, Elcan’s technology will sieve the powder at 44 ­µm.

The company stated that its twenty-five years’ experience in sieving has given it the knowledge to process these types of metal powders efficiently and safely. It also has a new state of the art lab that will contain a sieving station with the sole purpose of recycling Additive Manufacturing powders for companies.

The Elcan facility is said to be capable of handling anything from hundreds up to a million pounds of metal powder and offers sieve sizes down to 15 ­µm. All powders, with the exception of magnesium, can be processed and the company will provide particle size analysis for each fraction of the product as well as sieve analysis as needed.

Your “Sieving Milled Metal Powders” case study is featured on the front cover and can be read on page 28.
Also, your free ad (due to unfavorable location of your ad earlier in the year) can be seen on page 21.

Unlike traditional air classifiers, the Elbow Jet does not use a classifier wheel to make fine separations.

Rather, it employs the use of the Coanda effect to make separations based on air flow and particle density. This allows the Elbow Jet to make coarse, medium, and fine separations all at the same time!

The absence of the classifier wheel virtually eliminates the potential of foreign contamination within the machine making it ideal for high purity and abrasive powders.

Elcan has just commissioned one in their toll processing facility and it is now available for testing! Call today to find out more (914)-381-7500.

Elcan Industries, Tuckahoe, New York, USA, has added a powder reclaiming system for metal Additive Manufacturing to its line of advanced sieving equipment. The Hi-Sifter Powder Reclaiming System is designed specifically for the reclamation of metal powders used in AM, employing a high-energy approach to make fine separations.

The new powder reclaiming system is said to be capable of screening powder at 10 μm and at higher rates compared to some other systems available on the market. Constructed in polished stainless steel and having explosion proof and inert gas capabilities for the handling of reactive powders such as titanium and aluminium, it is especially suitable for use in aerospace and biomedical applications.

The Hi-Sifter is also said to be capable of efficiently removing oversize splatter while maximising potential yields for reclaimed powder, without the need for an ultrasonic deblending system.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a rapidly growing industry that has the capability of being used for an infinite number of applications. Whether it be for automotive, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, or any other industry, the preparation of the powder for this market is extremely important.

There are a number of different types of 3D printers and various powders that can be used to make parts in these printers. For Electronic Beam Melting (EBM) the required powder specification is from 107 microns down to 44 microns. For the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process, a fine powder is required as the powder must be sized to the range of 44 microns down to 15 microns.

The main reason that powders used for AM have to be in these specified size ranges is the effect they have within the bed of the 3D printer. The way that the material layers in the 3D printer bed is critical, and removing the sub 44 micron and sub 15 micron particles from the metal powder going into the 3D printer is as critical. Without removing these fines, the powder will not layer properly in the bed and can significantly affect the way the laser melts the powder. There are a couple ways to ensure that the material that is going into your powder is going to meet these tight specifications.

When preparing metal powders for the AM industry, the name of the game is maximizing yield without sacrificing efficiency. There are two main processes currently being used to effectively prepare powder for AM. The first way to size this powder is using an air classifier and the other is to use a screening or sieving system. Each method has benefits and drawbacks that dictate where each is best applied. As technologies have advanced, the ability to create more precise particle size distributions has been enhanced.

Air classifiers use air velocity and a classification wheel to separate a powder based on size. The feed rate, air flow, classifier wheel size opening, and wheel speed are all adjusted to determine where the separation occurs. The classifier allows for separations at small sizes, and at high-volume processing this is clearly a separation technology. There are drawbacks to this type of system for AM powders.

The selective laser melting method requires almost all -10 and most of the -15 micron particles be removed from the powder. To attain these targets with an air classifier, there will also be 15-25 micron particles that are removed in the fines in order to make sure all of the fines are classified out. This affects yield as well as the distribution of the powder that makes the bed material for processing.  Air classification also comes with a large capitalized installation and ongoing operational costs.

The other option to meet tight specifications is to use an advanced screening system. Until a few years ago, making a cut at 15 microns on a screening system would have been extremely difficult and time consuming. Recent advances in technology have made it possible to remove this fine product using a screener. The key is energy. Energy on the screen surface allows the fines to easily fall through the hole openings that now do not blind. The higher energy is just what the heavy and finer powder needs to screen at high volumes and excellent efficiencies. The ability to successfully and continuously separate this material at low micron sizes means that companies making powder for the AM industry can maximize yields by not losing as much good product as they would with an air classifier. This creates huge benefits for the AM manufacturers, as well as other industries.

However, as with classifiers, there are limiting factors to using a screening system. Currently, very few companies are able to produce screen cloth at less than 20 microns in stainless steel. The AM industry requires stainless steel contact surfaces and expensive 20 micron cloth is currently being used to remove the sub 10 micron particle fines. The performance benefits of these new systems outweigh the added costs, and as the market continues to grow, many screen cloth companies are using new techniques to develop stainless steel cloth in these lower micron ranges.

Bob Grotto is owner and president of Elcan Industries Inc., Tuckahoe, NY. He has over 25 years of screening experience and has been running screening equipment at Elcan’s toll manufacturing facility since 2000. Grotto is a former board member of PEMA.