Effect of optimizing particle size on directed energy deposition of Functionally Graded Material with blown Pre-Mixed Multi-Powder

Functionally Graded Material (FGM) is often fabricated by directed energy deposition with pre-mixed multiple powders (PMM-powder). Since the supplied PMM-powder directly affects FGM's composition, investigation on PMM-powder's property is greatly needed. This paper employed experimental method to observe an important problem: PMM-powder separation in fabricating FGM. A novel particle size optimization method was introduced as solution to eliminate the powder separation. Pre-mixed pure Cu and 4047 Al powders were used to do two experiments. The first experiment result disclosed the existence of powder separation. By optimizing the particle size, the PMM-powder separation was effectively solved in the second experiment result.