Aluminothermic reduction of titanium powder

The article provides a brief overview of currently existing methods for producing titanium powders in Russia and proposes a technology for aluminothermic production of titanium powder for Additive Technologies. The main fraction of the resulting powder (less than 50 microns) was subjected to hydrogen annealing to strengthen the sphere of metal powder and additional reduction the lower titanium oxides, then the powder was subjected to ultrasonic cleaning in a solution of glycerin and alcohol to better separate the formed corundum from the spheres. According to the results of an electron microscopic study, it was shown that the resulting granules have a spherical shape and consist mainly of titanium and aluminum, from which we can conclude that the powder is a titanium-aluminum alloy. According to the results of granulometric analysis, the spheres are in the range from 17 to 69 microns, which meets the requirements for metal powders used in additive technologies.