This partnership will develop an alternative supply chain for clean, spherical Tantalum and Tungsten powders for quality critical applications. It will combine Metalysis' metal production technology with LPW's spherodisation and post-processing capability. 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. The Metalysis technology, which produces metal powder directly from oxide using electrolysis, has the potential to significantly increase production volumes, indeed its plant in South Yorkshire that begun producing tantalum powder 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. LPW managing director, Dr Phil Carroll stated: “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.” www.lpwtechnology.com
