Abstract

The study for producing the flake powders by milling of aluminum foil and gas atomized powders was carried out. The effects of lifter bars on the ball motions and milling of aluminum foils were also investigated. The aluminum foils were laminated each other, elongated, fragmented into small foils and finally formed into the flake powders during the dry ball-milling. The spherical atomized-powders were milled to coarse flake powders with high aspect ratio and then changed to fine flake powders with lower aspect ratio. Even though long times were required for making flake powders by milling of foils, the water covering areas of them were higher than those of powders milled using gas-atomized powders, suggesting aluminum foils were more plastically deformed by micro-forging. On the other hand, as the number of lifter bars increased, the necessary rotation speeds of milling jar for cascading mode and cataracting mode decreased drastically. It was possible to achieve same quality of milled flake powder by using the lifter bars under the lower milling speeds. The painting test showed that the appearance of painted surface was good and optimum content range of aluminum paste in car paint to maximize the degree of gloss was 3-5%.

• Keywords: Aluminum flake;Ball milling;Lifer bar;Aluminum foil;Pigment;Paint;