METHOD FOR TREATMENT OF METALLIC POWDER FOR SELECTIVE LASER MELTING

The present application refers to a method for treating a base material in form of metallic powder made of super alloys based on Ni, Co, Fe or combinations thereof, or made of TiAl alloys which treated powder is used for additive manufacturing, especially for Selective Laser Melting (SLM) of three-dimensional articles. The method is characterized in that - in a first step the chemical composition of the base material is determined and compared to a calculated target chemical composition with detailed amount of each element of the powder, which is necessary for the following SLM manufacturing process, - the powder is stored and atomized only under dry and pure protective shielding gas atmosphere and/or - the powder is treated by a post gas phase treatment, thereby adding or removing specific elements into or from the powder particles and adjusting the content of the added or already existing specific elements to meet the calculated target amount of each element according to the first step. It is an effective, simple and cost-efficient method for improvement of SLM powder manufacturing, powder post-processing and powder recycling.