Proceedings of the XMO Industrial Seminar 2026: Excellence in Manufacturing and Operations
Keywords
Powder characterization, Additive manufacturing, Particle morphology, Powder flowability, Particle packing
Tracks
INTEGRATION AND SYSTEMS
DOI
10.5703/1288284318691
Abstract
Powder characterization is important for specification and qualification of powder feedstock materials used in powder-bed additive manufacturing. Characteristics include both distributed properties (i.e., particle morphology, size, shape, curvature distributions) as well as ensemble behavior including flow, spread-ability, and packing. Ensemble behavior is highly sensitive to boundary conditions in thin-layer processing, for example as required for additive manufacturing, thin-layer calendaring for dry-cathode processing, and many tribology-related applications. Particulate flow and packing are inherently multi-body ensemble processes; the distributed characteristics of particulates comprise said multi-body effects. Characterization of powder feedstock is important for manufacturing process control, resource efficiency, and product quality. This is especially relevant in additive manufacturing where process economics require various stages of feedstock reuse. This paper provides a brief overview of powder characterization with the intent to build a foundation that links distributed and ensemble characteristics.
Powder Metal Characterization for Additive Manufacturing
Powder characterization is important for specification and qualification of powder feedstock materials used in powder-bed additive manufacturing. Characteristics include both distributed properties (i.e., particle morphology, size, shape, curvature distributions) as well as ensemble behavior including flow, spread-ability, and packing. Ensemble behavior is highly sensitive to boundary conditions in thin-layer processing, for example as required for additive manufacturing, thin-layer calendaring for dry-cathode processing, and many tribology-related applications. Particulate flow and packing are inherently multi-body ensemble processes; the distributed characteristics of particulates comprise said multi-body effects. Characterization of powder feedstock is important for manufacturing process control, resource efficiency, and product quality. This is especially relevant in additive manufacturing where process economics require various stages of feedstock reuse. This paper provides a brief overview of powder characterization with the intent to build a foundation that links distributed and ensemble characteristics.