Cost And Carbon Footprint Of Continuous Metal Powder Production For Additive Manufacturing

Authors: Farhad Mostaghimi (SMS group GmbH, Germany) Frank Kaiser (SMS group GmbH, Germany) Peter Weiland (SMS group GmbH, Germany) Abstract: To reduce the cost of metal powders for additive manufacturing (AM), SMS group GmbH, in collaboration with an industrial partner, has developed a continuous powder production system for large-scale AM feedstock production. The continuous system is capable of producing up to 4,000 MT|year of metal powder while achieving powder quality comparable to conventional batch-wise vacuum induction inert gas atomization (VIGA). Two production routes using different scrap classes are evaluated: (1) vacuum induction furnace followed by atomization and (2) electric arc furnace with secondary metallurgy followed by atomization. These routes were benchmarked against VIGA in terms of carbon footprint and powder production costs. Results show that the continuous process delivers significant economic benefits and clear environmental advantages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.59499/EP267157618