Powder bed additive manufacturing using waste products from LKAB's pelletization process : A pre-study

• Main Author: Brandemyr, Gabriella
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för teknikvetenskap och matematik 2019
• Subjects: LKAB; powder; AM; waste products; Engineering and Technology; Teknik och teknologier; Luleå
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-75421

This report is the result of a bachelor thesis project executed at Luleå University of Technology(LTU). The purpose of the project was to investigate the possibility to use the metal powder wasteproducts from LKAB’s pelletizing process for additive manufacturing as this would meaneconomic benefits for the sake of LKAB as well as environmental benefits.Two different powders were used in the experiments and were referred to as crush and dust. Theexperiments were made through the selective laser melting (SLM) method with varying laserparameters to observe their effect. These included the laser power and laser speed. Scanningelectron microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and opticalmicroscopy were used for the analysis of the samples.The analysis of the chemical compositions showed that the powders were inhomogeneous anddiffered from each other. The crush powder contained phosphor and carbon which was lacking inthe dust and also had higher amounts of silicon and potassium. In spite of the inhomogeneouspowder and getting some agglomerations of half-melted grains on the tracks, the tracks tended tobe mostly homogenous. It was also observed that the tracks have a higher amount of carboncompared to the powder which probably derives from the substrate plate.The adherence of the tracks was greatest at a laser power between 200-300 W and a laser scanningspeed 0.5-1.75 m/min.The metal powder waste products from LKAB’s pelletization process could likely be used inadditive manufacturing, however, more work is needed in order to ensure the obtained results andcontinue with further experiments.