UK founded metal powders specialist, LPW Technology has partnered with Metalysis to develop an alternative supply chain for clean, spherical Tantalum and Tungsten powders for quality critical applications.
The collaboration, which both companies believe holds the potential to revolutionise the additive manufacturing market, will combine Metalysis’s unique metal production technology with LPW’s spherodisation and post-processing capability.
The Metalysis technology, which produces metal powder directly from oxide using electrolysis, has the potential to significantly increase production volumes. The company’s South Yorkshire based plant begun producing tantalum powder earlier this year is the first new primary tantalum metal production plant in Europe for more than 30 years. The patented process for producing metals, including refractory materials such as tantalum and tungsten alloys, offers both economic and environmental benefits over traditional metal production methods.
Using its position as one of the leading suppliers of metal powders for AM, LPW will be responsible for selling the optimised powder to the AM market. This will result in a supply chain that will be robust, quality driven and deliver high performance powders for the AM markets.
LPW leads the way in the development, optimisation and supply of metal powders into the AM industry and will be able to spherodise, size and blend high quality, free flowing powders directly from the raw material and alloys.
LPW Managing Director, Dr Phil Carroll commented: “Metalysis offers a greener and more cost-effective process, add our specialist industry knowledge and we can then supply a range of high quality, specially developed powders for the additive manufacturing industry”
Metalysis Chief Executive, Dion Vaughan added: “The strategic collaboration between LPW and Metalysis will seek to develop and build the additive manufacturing market for tantalum and its alloys by pooling resources. We believe that LPW’s market expertise will complement Metalysis’s experience in metal powder production to further the development of AM”
