Hydrometallurgical process for producing finely divided spherical maraging steel powders containing readily oxidizable alloying elements
First Claim
1. A process comprising:
- (a) forming an aqueous solution containing the metal values of iron, cobalt, nickel and molybdenum, said metals being present in a predetermined ratio,(b) forming from said solution a reducible solid material selected from the group consisting of salts of said metals, oxides of said metals, hydroxides of said metals and mixtures thereof,(c) reducing said material to form metallic powder particles,(d) agglomerating said particles with a predetermined amount of a second group consisting of at least one readily oxidizable metal selected from the group consisting of aluminum, titanium and vanadium and,(e) entraining at least a portion of said agglomerates in a carrier gas,(f) feeding said entrained agglomerates and said carrier gas into a high temperature zone and maintaining said agglomerates within said zone for a sufficient time to melt at least about 50% by weight of said agglomerates and to form droplets therefrom, and(g) cooling said droplets to form essentially spherical shaped particles of a maraging steel alloy containing at least one readily oxidizable metal.
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Abstract
A process for producing spherically shaped maraging steel powder particles containing a readily oxidizable metal comprises forming an aqueous solution containing the metal values of iron, cobalt, nickel and molybdenum, in a predetermined ratio, forming a reducible solid material from the solution reducing the solid material to form metallic poweder particles. These particles are agglomerated with a predetermined amount of a second group consisting of at least one readily oxidizable metal selected from the group consisting of aluminum, titanium and vanadium. The agglomerates are entrained in a carrier gas and fed into a high temperature zone and droplets are formed. The droplets are cooled to form essentially spherical shaped particles of a maraging steel alloy containing at least one readily oxidizable metal.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A process comprising:
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(a) forming an aqueous solution containing the metal values of iron, cobalt, nickel and molybdenum, said metals being present in a predetermined ratio, (b) forming from said solution a reducible solid material selected from the group consisting of salts of said metals, oxides of said metals, hydroxides of said metals and mixtures thereof, (c) reducing said material to form metallic powder particles, (d) agglomerating said particles with a predetermined amount of a second group consisting of at least one readily oxidizable metal selected from the group consisting of aluminum, titanium and vanadium and, (e) entraining at least a portion of said agglomerates in a carrier gas, (f) feeding said entrained agglomerates and said carrier gas into a high temperature zone and maintaining said agglomerates within said zone for a sufficient time to melt at least about 50% by weight of said agglomerates and to form droplets therefrom, and (g) cooling said droplets to form essentially spherical shaped particles of a maraging steel alloy containing at least one readily oxidizable metal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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- 13. A composition consisting essentially of maraging steel alloy powders containing at least one readily oxidizable metal wherein said powders consist essentially of spherical particles wherein at least 50% of said particles have a size less than about 50 micrometers and an average particle size of less than about 50 micrometers.
Specification