Patent ID: 7736585

Claim:
A system for producing extremely small metal spherical particles of high uniform size and high sphericity comprising: a granulation chamber being gas substantially tight and having an upper end and a lower end, the granulation chamber being in a vacuum atmosphere; means for collecting produced particles at the lower end of the chamber with a particle conduit means for delivering produced particles from the chamber; conduit means for delivering molten metal through said upper end of the granulation chamber, said conduit means protruding through the upper end so that said protruding conduit means is directed down toward the interior of the chamber; a heated vessel being substantially gas tight and adapted for melting metal starting materials and which connects to said molten metal conduit means, allowing the flow of molten metal from the heated vessel through said molten metal conduit means; a rotating disk located beneath said protruding molten metal conduit means which disperses molten metal that drops upon said disk from said protruding molten metal conduit means to form tiny dispersed droplets, the rotating disc being provided in the granulation chamber, the rotating disc rotating at 50,000 rpm to 100,000 rpm using a motor under the vacuum atmosphere; and ejector means for ejecting cooling gas within a predetermined radius of said rotating disk to cool said dispersed metal droplets into solidified metal spheres.