is preferred that the cover 7 is air tightly connected to the bottom end surface 51 of the second member 5 this makes it possible to prevent the external air from flowing into the cover 7 as a consequence it is possible to reliably prevent the liquid droplets q 1 from making contact with the external air and suffering from oxidative deterioration which would otherwise occur when the liquid droplets q 1 undergo the secondary breakup under the action of the fluid jet s 1 the inside of the cover 7 is kept in a depressurized condition this further reduces the pressure within the first flow path 31 communicating with the inside of the cover 7 as a result the molten metal q is more finely split up during the primary breakup which makes it possible to obtain even finer liquid droplets q 1 and eventually even finer metal powder r from this point of view the inner diameter of the cover 7 is preferably about 1 to 4 times and more preferably about 1 5 to 3 times as great as the ring diameter of the orifice 34 the diameter of the annular orifice 34 this makes it possible to sufficiently reduce the pressure within the cover 7 while fully cooling the liquid droplets q 1 if the inner diameter of the cover 7 is smaller than the lower limit value noted above there is a possibility that the liquid droplets formed by splitting the liquid droplets q 1 during the.