Transitioning from Pilot Plant Stage, Metalvalue Ramps Up Additive Manufacturing Technology By Michael C. Gabriele
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etalvalue Ltd., a research and development company with an operational base in Paris, and a network of cooperating companies in continental Europe, is ramping up an innovative additive manufacturing technology that involves spherical gas atomized powder to produce parts with full density in the range from 100g to 5 kg at competitive costs (several parts per minute). The process is suitable for titanium powder metal alloys Alain Honnart, partner and managing director, Metalvalue Ltd., said this new-generation technology is an improvement from the MMSScanpac process, which he described, as a speaker, at recent TITANIUM USA conferences. “Our project is based on the development of several technologies to consolidate powder with the ability to use relatively large particle size and nevertheless reaching close to 100-percent density” he said. “We are now in between the pilot plant stage and the industrial stage and have chosen a few priority directions where we believe that the volume will be huge. Our driver is cost reduction and our goal is to be cheaper than conventional metallurgy. Customers will discover that, in addition, the products are better than conventionally made products.” Metalvalue has pioneered this additive manufacturing with the industrial help from M.A.T. (Metal Additive Technologies) and its licensees. According to Honnart, the
Alain Honnart
technology involves a combination of two factors: an agglomeration process involving a light binder (1 to 2 percent) that’s easy to remove before sintering; and “adiabatic
compaction” (a high-velocity/highimpact forming process), which allows parts to reach almost full density. Together, the two factors create a process that can utilize clean spherical powder. Honnart said the process competes favorably with conventional metallurgy because of the yield (50 percent less scrap) but also due to energy savings. Due to the reduction of the number of operations and of the loss of material the energy savings can be up to 10kWh/kg of finished product. Applications for the technology range from the automotive industry to medical applications. In addition, Metalvalue has developed a complementary patented process, which involves a special preparation of the spherical powder in order to produce a mix without any binders. This is particularly important for titanium because
Images of Metalvalue Parts TITANIUMTODAY
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