US 12,226,833 B2
Device for atomizing a melt stream by means of a gas
Volker Güther, Altdorf (DE); Karin Ratschbacher, Nuremberg (DE); Melissa Allen, Burgthann (DE); Sergejs Spitans, Frankfurt am Main (DE); and Henrik Franz, Freigericht (DE)
Assigned to GFE METALLE UND MATERIALIEN GMBH, Nuremberg (DE); and ALD VACUUM TECHNOLOGIES GMBH, Hanau (DE)
Appl. No. 17/763,023
Filed by ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH, Hanau (DE); and GfE Metalle und Materialien GmbH, Nuremberg (DE)
PCT Filed Sep. 17, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/075994
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 23, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/058374, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 1, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 10 2019 214 555.8 (DE), filed on Sep. 24, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0339701 A1, Oct. 27, 2022
Int. Cl. B22F 9/08 (2006.01); B22F 1/065 (2022.01)
CPC B22F 9/082 (2013.01) [B22F 1/065 (2022.01); B22F 2009/0836 (2013.01); B22F 2009/088 (2013.01); B22F 2009/0888 (2013.01); B22F 2999/00 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A device for atomizing one of a group comprising a metallic, intermetallic and ceramic melt stream by means of an atomizing gas to form a spherical powder, the device comprising:
a melt chamber;
a powder chamber;
an induction coil in the melt chamber;
a melt material in the induction coil; and
an atomizer nozzle interconnecting the melt chamber and the powder chamber and being arranged in a nozzle plate for the melt stream melted off from the melt material by the induction coil, wherein
the atomizer nozzle consists of an exclusively convergent nozzle profile having nozzle flanks which have a circular-arc-shaped cross-section, and therefore both the atomizing gas and the melt stream, both of which are conducted through the exclusively convergent nozzle profile, and droplets generated therefrom reach a velocity which is at most equal to the acoustic velocity of the atomizing gas,
wherein a tangent at the nozzle outlet has an angle of <90° with respect to the nozzle outlet side.