The 3D printing manufacturing method and application of tantalum metal belong to the field of additive manufacturing technology. A 3D printing manufacturing method for the metal tantalum, including: The spherical tantalum powder was loaded into the 3D printing forming equipment, argon gas was used to purge the 3D printing forming equipment until the oxygen content in the 3D printing forming equipment was less than 100ppm, and the Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy substrate was preheated under the condition of 90 ~ 150℃. The Angle between the scanning layers was 67°, and 3D printing manufacturing was carried out. The raw tantalum powder used in the manufacturing method is spherical, high purity, low oxygen content and excellent flow performance. The surface roughness of the metal tantalum prepared by 3D printing is Ra≤5.0μm, the density ρ≥ 99.8%, the tensile strength σb = 697MPa, the yield strength σ0.2 = 581MPa, and the elongation δ = 27.5%. It can meet the performance requirements of ISO13782 surgical implants used in the biomedical field.
Preparation of spherical tantalum powder for 3D printing. The irregular sodium-reduced tantalum powder was placed in a vacuum drying oven for 2 to 4 hours at a drying temperature of 80 to 100℃. The powder after drying treatment was screened by a manual screening machine, and the material under the screening was taken to obtain -150~-250 mesh sodium reduced tantalum powder, which was put into the powder feeding system of RF plasma spheroidization equipment.
Establish a stable operating argon or argon/helium plasma torch. A certain amount of argon or argon/helium continuous flow is injected into the plasma reactor, and the RF induction coil is loaded with high voltage of 6~8kV. At the same time, the arc discharge is started to ionize the argon or argon/helium to produce argon plasma torch. At this time, a certain normal balance of pressure is maintained in the whole plasma reactor to ensure the stable operation of the plasma torch.
The irregular tantalum powder is heated by injecting it into the high temperature area of the central part of the plasma torch by carrying gas. The carrying gas can be argon and other gases that do not react chemically with metal powder in a high temperature environment. The heating time ends with the gas/powder flow "flying away" from the plasma torch, lasting about 100 to 200 milliseconds. The irregular tantalum powder is sent into the central high temperature area of the plasma torch, and absorbs a large amount of heat under the action of four heat transfer mechanisms: radiation, convection, conduction and chemistry. The surface of the particles is rapidly heated and melted. When more than 50% of the weight of the particles is melted, the molten particles form droplets with high sphericity under the action of surface tension, and are rapidly cooled under extremely high temperature gradient. Thus forming spherical particles. The temperature gradient ranges from 103 to 106K/m.
The gas is removed and the spherical tantalum powder is collected. Specifically, after the spheroidization process is completed, the gas is extracted, treated and discharged, and the spheroidized powder enters the collection tank. The spherical tantalum powder obtained by this process has high purity, low oxygen content and excellent flow performance, which is helpful to obtain tantalum metal with better performance.
