Muh. Halim Asiri, Rudy Soenoko, Agus Suprapto, Yudy Surya Irawan
Aluminum alloy is the base material to produce aluminum metal powders by using a water atomization system with a spraying method under a high pressure condition of about 30 to 40 psi. The water spraying discharge was set as Q = 20 l/s with a spraying angle variation of 20°, 30° and 40° and by implementing a 20 holed nozzle. Each nozzle hole has a diameter of Øhole = 1mm. The aim of setting these parameters is to get a fine and bulky aluminum alloy powder. The other objective is that a fine grain powder could have a better structure and hopefully can avoid porosity as well as improve the aluminum alloy mechanical properties, such as the metal hardness, metal tensile strength, metal ductility and of course a normal micro and macro structure. Furthermore, to determine the metal powder granules form and size it is depend on the spraying distance parameters variation. The spraying parameter variations are the nozzle spraying distance to the hot liquid metal and the nozzle angle toward the hot liquid metal stream (θ). In this research the parameter variations are 2.5 cm spraying distance for the 20° spraying angle, a 3.5 cm spraying distance for the 30° spraying angle and a 4.5 cm spraying distance for the 40° spraying angle. The spray angle variation would give a special powder shape characteristic. Moreover, the spray distance could give a specific powder number produced. From the three kind of spray angle variation the highest metal powder number produced occurs at a spray angle of 30°, with a 3.5 cm spray distance a 297 grams of metal powder was produced. With a 20 holes nozzle and a nozzle hole diameter of Ø = 1 mm and a pressure of = 15 psi, and water flow rate of 15 l/s. © Research India Publications.
Brawijaya University, Mechanical Engineering Department, Malang, 65145, Indonesia; Merdeka University, Mechanical Engineering Department, Malang, 65145, Indonesia; The Muslim University of Indonesia, Mechanical Engineering Department, Makassar, 9023, Indonesia
