Powder metal with attached ceramic nanoparticles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9796019-B2
Application number	US-201514670623-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 27, 2015
Priority date	Mar 27, 2015
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

A method for processing a powder material includes cleaning surfaces of a powder material that has spherical metal particles, coating the cleaned surfaces with an organic bonding agent, mixing the coated particles with a dispersion that contains ceramic nanoparticles, drying the mixture to remove a carrier of the dispersion and deposit the ceramic nanoparticles with a spaced-apart distribution onto the organic bonding agent on the surfaces of the particles, and thermally removing the organic bonding agent to attach the ceramic nanoparticles to the surface of the particles.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for processing a powder material, the method comprising:
cleaning surfaces of the powder material that has spherical metal particles;
coating the cleaned surfaces with an organic bonding agent;
mixing the coated particles with a dispersion that contains a carrier and ceramic nanoparticles;
drying the mixture to remove the carrier of the dispersion and to deposit the ceramic nanoparticles with a spaced-apart distribution onto the organic bonding agent on the surfaces of the spherical metal particles; and
thermally removing the organic bonding agent to attach the ceramic nanoparticles to the surfaces of the spherical metal particles.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the ceramic nanoparticles are oxide nanoparticles.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the ceramic nanoparticles are zirconium oxide.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the ceramic nanoparticles are selected from the group consisting of oxides, nitrides, carbides, and combinations thereof.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein, after the thermal removal of the organic bonding agent, the powder material has a composition, by weight, of 0.1-5% of the ceramic nanoparticles.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the cleaning includes etching the surfaces using an acid.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein after the mixing and prior to the drying, the particles are rinsed in a controlled amount of water.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the organic bonding agent includes a surfactant with polar end groups.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the organic bonding agent includes dodecyl sulfate.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the dispersion is a colloid.

11. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the spherical metal particles include nickel.

12. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the spherical metal particles include chromium.

13. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the spherical metal particles include nickel and chromium, the ceramic nanoparticles are zirconium oxide and, after the thermal removal of the organic bonding agent, the powder material has a composition, by weight, of 0.1-5% of the zirconium oxide.

Assignees

• United Technologies Corp

Inventors

• She Ying
• Sharon John A
• Beals James T
• Nardi Aaron T

Classifications

• B22F1/142 Primary

  Thermal or thermo-mechanical treatment · CPC title

• B22F1/16

  Metallic particles coated with a non-metal (coated with lubricating or binding agents or with organic material B22F1/10) · CPC title

• B22F10/28

  Powder bed fusion, e.g. selective laser melting [SLM] or electron beam melting [EBM] · CPC title

• B22F2998/10

  Processes characterised by the sequence of their steps · CPC title

• B23K2103/52

  Ceramics · CPC title