MORPHOLOGICAL AND STRUCTURAL ASPECTS USING ELECTRONIC MICROSCOPY AND IMAGE ANALYSIS OF IRON POWDERS OBTAINED BY WATER ATOMIZATION PROCESS

Quality of metal powders depends on manufacturing process and heat treating parameters. Among the physical, mechanical and structural characteristics of powders, the average particle size, size distribution, particle shape and microstructure of powders are defining characteristics to obtain powders with superior performance. The objective of the present paper is to analyze, using electronic microscopy and image analysis , the particle shape and size of iron powder obtained by water atomization of molten iron. We separately computer analyzed three types of powder, and then we realized the graphical representation of particle size distribution of powders in function of different atomizing temperature. It was established correlation between water atomization process parameters and physical, technological and structural characteristics of iron powders.