Method for making metal powder

Claim 1

A process for preparing a rapidly solidified powder comprising entraining an agglomerated metal powder in a carrier gas, feeding the entrained agglomerated powder through a high temperature reactor to form a stream of dispersed particles, one portion of said dispersed particles being substantially completely melted and another portion being partially melted, directing said stream of dispersed particles into a cooling fluid at a temperature sufficient to subject said particles to conditions of rapid solidification and form an initial mixture of particles comprising rapidly solidified spherically shaped particles from said one portion and partially resolidified particles from said other portion, said rapidly solidified spherically shaped particles requiring a first amount of energy for comminution and said partially resolidified particles requiring a second amount of energy for comminution, said second amount of energy being less than said first amount of energy, subjecting said mixture to an energy for comminution intermediate said first and second energy for preferentially comminuting said other portion as compared with said one portion to give a resulting mixture containing comminuted particles, and separating a portion of said comminuted particles to give a final mixture including a greater proportion of rapidly solidifed spherically shaped particles than said initial mixture.