Upcycling Aluminium Chips to Powder Feedstocks for Powder Metallurgy Applications

Abstract

The aluminium scrap, either from industry or end-of-life consumer products is generally melted to recycle aluminium. This recycling approach can still consume up to one-third of the energy consumed to produce primary aluminium since it also requires the addition of primary aluminium apart from other processing. Aluminium metal swarf, a waste from subtractive manufacturing processes can be upcycled to produce metal powders. Conventionally, aluminium powders are produced using atomization processes with considerable energy and inert gas consumption. Thus, it is worth evaluating approaches like mechanical milling to explore the potential of energy savings as well as reducing the carbon footprint. Identifying and controlling the key milling parameters is paramount to achieving desired characteristics in the milled powders. This study explores the feasibility of the production of A356 and AlSi10Mg aluminium alloy powder by mechanical milling of waste metal swarf. Material characterization and mechanical testing results are presented. (c) European Powder Metallurgy Association (EPMA)