is it possible 925 sterling silver powder

[capitano9VII]

Hello everybody. I have a question and I hope one of you guys can help me. I need to make 925 sterling silver powder. I tried this with silver-copper alloy. The copper in it melted because of the acid. The product I got was 999. I need 925. What can I do about it? silver-copper powder must be homogeneous.

 

[Martijn]

Welcome to the forum.
What do you mean melted because of the acid? What kind of acid?

The only way I can come up with is filing sterling with a new fine file to get fine powder without contamination of sand paper or a dirty file.
Cemented silver will be nearly pure.

 

[capitano9VII]

Welcome to the forum.
What do you mean melted because of the acid? What kind of acid?

The only way I can come up with is filing sterling with a new fine file to get fine powder without contamination of sand paper or a dirty file.
Cemented silver will be nearly pure.

When we react with nitric acid, they both separate. when we add salt later, the silver precipitates and separates from the copper. my customer wants 925 silver powder. I thought of your method. but when we try this, the sandpaper and the iron from the file mix.

 

[Martijn]

With iron from a file, which in my opinion should not happen due to the softness of silver, you could use magnetic separation on the powder.
Sandpaper is mission impossible i think.
What is the customers purpose for the powder?
(Edited for spelling)

 

[capitano9VII]

With iron from a file, which in my opinion should not happen due to the softness of silver, you could use magnetic separation on the powder.
Sandpaper is mission impossible i think.
What is the customers purpose for the powder?
(Edited for spelling)

I don't know the purpose of the client. Thanks for help. i will try a few ways

 

[cejohnsonsr1]

925 (Sterling) is an alloy in metallic state. You won’t get that all in elemental form (powder) unless you precipitate both separately and mix precisely. Even then it won’t really be 925.

 

[orvi]

I wonder you can dissolve the sterling in nitric and then cement everything with iron - maybe. This only come to my mind. However, i don´t know how silver behave when cemented with iron - if it is flaked off nicely or make hard deposits.

 

[kurtak]

I wonder you can dissolve the sterling in nitric and then cement everything with iron - maybe. This only come to my mind. However, i don´t know how silver behave when cemented with iron - if it is flaked off nicely or make hard deposits.

the problem with that is you would not actually cement silver/copper 925 alloy

instead you would cement silver --- and --- copper - as separate metals mixed together in the cement

so you still would not have actual 925 metal alloy

the only real way to do it (other then filing) would be to melt the 925 & then pour the molten 925 through an atomizer which will produce mostly 300 minus mess metal powder

https://www.sugino.com/site/water-atomization-equipment-e/
you can make one with a pressure washer - it needs to be a high volume high pressure (so high end commercial) washer - not a cheap small home use washer

you need to make a pipe ring the high pressure water feeds into with 4 nozzles placed 90 degrees from each other around the ring angled downward to the center of the ring

you then set the ring on top of a barrel & then pour the molten metal though the ring

when the molten metal hits the high pressure water spray it atomizes the metal to powder

Keep in mind you are dealing with very high pressures so it needs to be VERY well constructed --- you don't want it to blow apart on you

Kurt

 

[kurtak]

Hello everybody. I have a question and I hope one of you guys can help me. I need to make 925 sterling silver powder. I tried this with silver-copper alloy. The copper in it melted because of the acid. The product I got was 999. I need 925. What can I do about it? silver-copper powder must be homogeneous.

How much of this powder do you (or your client) need ?

I ask because building an atomizer it's self is going to be somewhat costly - just for the pressure washer

As I said - you need a high volume high pressure (so high end commercial) washer - not a cheap small home use washer

Building one is not as simple as I made it sound in my last post --- you need to consider things like pressure, pipe size, size (diameter) of the ring/donut, nozzle size & type, nozzle placement & angle etc. etc.

And of course you need to have a furnace for melting the metal

Kurt

 

[capitano9VII]

the problem with that is you would not actually cement silver/copper 925 alloy

instead you would cement silver --- and --- copper - as separate metals mixed together in the cement

so you still would not have actual 925 metal alloy

the only real way to do it (other then filing) would be to melt the 925 & then pour the molten 925 through an atomizer which will produce mostly 300 minus mess metal powder

https://www.sugino.com/site/water-atomization-equipment-e/
you can make one with a pressure washer - it needs to be a high volume high pressure (so high end commercial) washer - not a cheap small home use washer

you need to make a pipe ring the high pressure water feeds into with 4 nozzles placed 90 degrees from each other around the ring angled downward to the center of the ring

you then set the ring on top of a barrel & then pour the molten metal though the ring

when the molten metal hits the high pressure water spray it atomizes the metal to powder

Keep in mind you are dealing with very high pressures so it needs to be VERY well constructed --- you don't want it to blow apart on you

Kurt

I will concentrate on this method. I can provide the necessary equipment and try. Thank you everyone for your ideas.

 

[capitano9VII]

How much of this powder do you (or your client) need ?

I ask because building an atomizer it's self is going to be somewhat costly - just for the pressure washer

As I said - you need a high volume high pressure (so high end commercial) washer - not a cheap small home use washer

Building one is not as simple as I made it sound in my last post --- you need to consider things like pressure, pipe size, size (diameter) of the ring/donut, nozzle size & type, nozzle placement & angle etc. etc.

And of course you need to have a furnace for melting the metal

Kurt

I have a furnace for melting the metal. My client asked if you could do this. Asked me for an sample product. if i find high pressure washer i could try.

 

[capitano9VII]

What I'm really curious about is the size of the product that will come out. customer wants micron size. can we adjust the particle size by increasing the pressure. @kurtak

 

[kurtak]

an atomizer will make 300 (plus/minus) mesh powder (some will be 300 plus - some will be 300 minus (MOSTLY 300 minus) --- that is of course if your atomizer is properly constructed

300 mesh is about - 0.05 - micron

here is a mesh to micron chart

http://filtersolutions.com/pdf/mesh to micron conversion chart.pdf
300 mesh is VERY fine powder

Kurt

 

[jobinyt]

I think you need a better product specification. Will any 925 % silver allow suffice, or must it be a specific alloy? In some physical measure what partical size and size range is required. For instance, does micron truly mean micron and can fines be left in the product? "Mesh' is the usual specification, but even there a fussy client may care about wire size. What is the order volume and frequency? Will you be selling at spot price (probably risky), long term contract, ...?

I suspect your customer knows of many suppliers with reasonably reliable quality and delivery dates. What they seek is a lower price. If the specification is tight (it might be tight it product performance and they might not even realize that) for instance for use in a battery or electrical component, you'll likely not meet it with mixed/home brewed alloy. I learned to always ask potential customers why they wanted a new supplier. Those having their product quailty spec met or were getting late shipments I wanted and got. Those just shopping for lowest available price I didn't want. They are unprofitable, demanding, and will change suppliers for insignificant price differences. Let the seller be aware.

 

[kurtak]

Will you be selling at spot price

Atomized metal powders go from anywhere 2X spot price to 4 - 5 X spot price depending on several factors including but not limited to order size (1 pound or 100 pounds)

They have a VERY wide range of applications

Kurt

 

[orvi]

the problem with that is you would not actually cement silver/copper 925 alloy

instead you would cement silver --- and --- copper - as separate metals mixed together in the cement

so you still would not have actual 925 metal alloy

the only real way to do it (other then filing) would be to melt the 925 & then pour the molten 925 through an atomizer which will produce mostly 300 minus mess metal powder

https://www.sugino.com/site/water-atomization-equipment-e/
you can make one with a pressure washer - it needs to be a high volume high pressure (so high end commercial) washer - not a cheap small home use washer

you need to make a pipe ring the high pressure water feeds into with 4 nozzles placed 90 degrees from each other around the ring angled downward to the center of the ring

you then set the ring on top of a barrel & then pour the molten metal though the ring

when the molten metal hits the high pressure water spray it atomizes the metal to powder

Keep in mind you are dealing with very high pressures so it needs to be VERY well constructed --- you don't want it to blow apart on you

Kurt

Yes, it´s true. However, it need to be very specialized application, where mixed alloy powder is required. If it is melted in any moment, it would produce the same alloy.
Atomizing didn´t come right to my mind, too much focused on chemical ways
Just a question, does reducing/increasing pressure mean reducing/increasing grain diameter ? or it just start to produce all kinds of mesh sizes ? Seems like you have experience with this procedure

 

[joekbit]

Hello everybody. I have a question and I hope one of you guys can help me. I need to make 925 sterling silver powder. I tried this with silver-copper alloy. The copper in it melted because of the acid. The product I got was 999. I need 925. What can I do about it? silver-copper powder must be homogeneous.

That's a strange request.
925 is 80% pure Ag with an alloy added. In short if you have 100 grams of pure silver you need add (20 grams) of some other element to mix with it. Most commonly Cu (copper), resulting in 120 grams. Use some cemented Ag powder and file some pure Cu as needed for the proper ratio.

 

[AustAuScrap]

Hi,
Interesting subject, concept,
I am guessing someone wants to 3D print some Sterling silver jewellery?
If not it might still be a direction to search out the processes used to make metal lazer printer powders to see if the method might be suitable to process the known Sterling into the required grade powder.
Next question then though is oxidation, the smaller the grains the bigger the surface area to get oxidized. -and will this cause unwanted effects for what ever the powder would be used for.
For instance when I sharpen a drill on my Drill Doctor, the waste from the diamond grinding wheel doesn't take long at all to oxidize because it is so fine. It is also my guess that Sterling would be too soft and clog a diamond wheel to use this as a powder manufacture process.
J

 

[FrugalRefiner]

925 is 80% pure Ag with an alloy added. In short if you have 100 grams of pure silver you need add (20 grams) of some other element to mix with it. Most commonly Cu (copper), resulting in 120 grams. Use some cemented Ag powder and file some pure Cu as needed for the proper ratio.

??? "925 is 80% pure Ag with an alloy added." ???

Sterling silver, which is often stamped as 925 is 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metal, usually copper.

Mixing 100 grams of pure silver with 20 grams of another metal would yield an alloy that was 83.33% silver.

Dave

 

[orvi]

That's a strange request.
925 is 80% pure Ag with an alloy added. In short if you have 100 grams of pure silver you need add (20 grams) of some other element to mix with it. Most commonly Cu (copper), resulting in 120 grams. Use some cemented Ag powder and file some pure Cu as needed for the proper ratio.

925 states for 925/1000. 80% would be 800/1000
Some strange "math" is going here