Development and Characterization of Aerospace Grade AISI 440C and Cronidur-30 Alloy Powders for Additive Manufacturing Applications

The role of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in high-end engineering industries is expanding rapidly with metal AM becoming a crucial choice, particularly in the aerospace sector.The demand for high-performance, corrosion-resistant metal alloys continues to grow.In line with this, the present study focuses on the development and characterization of aerospace-grade stainless steel alloys (AISI 440C and Cronidur-30), for AM applications, especially in bimetal components.The alloy powders are produced using the gas atomization process with nitrogen inert gas atmosphere and evaluated for their chemical composition, particle size, flowability, apparent density and morphology to ensure their suitability for AM techniques such as Direct Energy Deposition (DED).The chemical composition and microstructure analysis of developed alloy powders are carried out through Inductive Coupled Plasma -Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), respectively.