LPW opens AM Metal Powder Manufacturing plant in Widnes.
A peculiar sense of town-pride came over me as I approached LPW Technology’s new facility in Widnes last week. As the additive manufacturing (AM) industry continues to prosper, I’ve become quite used to my job taking me all over the world, visiting events and companies that are playing their part in changing the manufacturing landscape, but never did I imagine it would take me home.
Widnes, an industrial town in the North West of the UK, may not be world-renowned like its neighbour, Liverpool but its engineering reputation spans from being a frontrunner in the chemical industry (through the good and the bad) to the design of the Avro Lancaster bomber. With the grey days of factories and sky-high pollution (I promise this has a positive spin) long behind us, replaced by modern manufacturing businesses, it seems fitting that LPW would choose to open its £20 million AM Metal Powder Manufacturing plant here.
The 9,700 m² facility sits on a seven-acre site, consciously chosen with a view to doubling in size. A goal which, going off the company’s rapid growth in just a few short years growing from 2 employers to 85 with a turnover of 15 million GBP, may not take too long to materialise.
This is LPW’s second location in the region after its Runcorn-site, which our Head of Content, Dan O’Connor paid a visit to last year, but it is the first facility which sees LPW producing its own clean metal AM powders and the first facility in the world dedicated to metal powder production for AM.
The first thing you notice when you enter through its neon green lit tunnel is how spotlessly clean everything is. Forget any preconceptions you had about a powder manufacturing plant with buckets of material being passed around the lab - you won’t see a speck of it here. In fact, as Phil Kilburn, Commercial Director at LPW commented during a tour of the facility; “The only time you should see powder is through the window of the [AM] machine”.
LPW plaque unveiled by HRH Duke of Gloucester to mark the official opening of the facility.
The entire space has been designed for optimum safety and quality control throughout. The facility is made up of separate cells, protected with air-locks and operating as clean rooms. When materials come in, crates of feedstock are counted outside the facility to minimise contamination before being brought into a gargantuan atomizer, about the size of a house, to be melted at around 1700ºC. The molten metal is then converted into fine grade metal powder which can be made to customer specifications primarily in nickel, aluminium and titanium, for use in critical applications in aerospace, automotive and biomedical industries.
Founded in 2007 by Dr Phil Carroll, the launch marks a significant step in LPW’s growth as a leader in manufacturing AM metal powder and digital traceability. It is achieving this through its PowderLife product range, which includes PowderSolve software to provide full traceability of metal powder data from supplier to build, and the PowderTrace smart hopper which allows manufacturers to safely transport up to 450 kg of metal powders under controlled conditions to any metal AM machine.
The aim is to make the process as clean and simple as 2D printing by making the PowderTrace “the cartridge for the AM industry”. There are currently between 20-30 of these hoppers out in the field but many LPW customers still receive their powders in standard plastic bottles which line the walls of the facility, a trend that LPW believes will change as the industry and demand for traceability grows.
The facility also has its own beta testing site featuring a TRUMPF TruPrint 1000 machine which is used to help engineers to fully characterise metal powders and develop the next generation of materials .
HRH The Duke of Gloucester takes a tour around LPW's AM beta test site.
The plant was officially opened last week by HRH The Duke of Gloucester in front of LPW employees (including a handful of enthusiastic apprentices from the local Riverside College), engineers, and business leaders across the AM sector.
“As LPW moves confidently into this next stage of our growth plan, we place immense value on our exceptional employees who are making this possible,” Dr Carroll commented. “I’m extremely grateful for the support received from Halton Borough Council and the UK government’s Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI). To be part of a UK-based manufacturer helping to realise the potential of 3D printing in applications across the world makes me incredibly proud.”
"Factory of the future" is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the advanced manufacturing world. More often than not "future" is the key takeaway. The pieces of the puzzle are there; automation, connectivity, AM, etc, but it is not yet the standard. With the launch of this facility and focus on digital integration marking a new chapter in its plans to double its turnover and employees by 2021, LPW are showing how this future factory vision can be achieved today.
