6K Additive has announced a collaboration with Morf3D to qualify the metal additive manufacturing powders for aerospace and defence customers.
Through the process of qualifying 6K Additive’s metal powders, Morf3D will manage the printing, characterisation, post-processing and data generation framework. The announcement was made while 6K Additive exhibited at RAPID + TCT in Detroit.
By partnering with 6K Additive and gaining access to its domestic, sustainably sourced powders, Morf3D will be able to react quickly to customer needs once the powders have been qualified. It is said that the sustainable sourcing of 6K’s powders – which come from upcycled used and end-of-life powders, scrap material and test parts – was a key aspect of Morf3D’s decision to align with the materials company.
“By working with Morf3D, we’re able to leverage their deep industry experience and application expertise to help guide the qualification process,” commented 6K Additive President Frank Roberts. “This is a conduit to acceptance by a demanding customer base in space, aviation, defence industries and more. We want our powders to be part of manufacturing solutions for the most intense applications in additive manufacturing and partners with Morf3D provides us with another channel to these important customers.”
“6K Additive’s innovative business model helps us leverage our low-value waste streams into high-value credits against virgin powder sales,” added Dr Behrang Poorganji, Vice President of Material Technology at Morf3D. “By using 6K Additive powders, we are able to source materials like high-temperature refractories at production scale, with the added benefit of using a US-based supplier.”
Leaning on 6K’s UniMelt technology, Morf3D expects to reduce cost and waste, while gaining access to ‘premium quality metal powders for production.’ Those powders include Ti6Al4V Grade 5 and 24, 316L stainless steel, and the Ni718 and Ni525 superalloys, which are produced with the help of ten fully operational UniMelt microwave plasma systems. A $102m Series D funding round announced last week will help further expand this metal 3D printing powder production capability.
