Sandvik
Sandvik powder.
Sandvik Materials Technology is to open a new metal powder manufacturing plant in a bid to strengthen its position in the additive manufacturing market after a $25m investment from its parent company.
The new facility will provide the company a platform to produce titanium and nickel fine metal powders, complementing the company’s existing powder offering. In an additive manufacturing context, this offering includes austenitic stainless and duplex steels; low-alloy steels; tool steels; nickel alloys; and cobalt alloys, while it also offers a series of metal powders for brazing; cold spray; metal injection moulding (MIM); micro-MIM; and plasma and thermal spray processes.
These powders are manufactured in Sweden and the United Kingdom, with sales taking place throughout Europe, North America and Asia through Sandvik’s Osprey brand. The new facility will be located in Sandviken, Sweden, near the company’s in-house titanium raw material supply and the centre for additive manufacturing, and will be fully operational by 2020.
Sandvik has sought to step up its development of powders for metal AM after assessing market trends and projections. In particular, the company has outlined titanium- and nickel-based alloys as key growth areas in the AM field, accounting for a significant portion of the metal powder market. Though the new facility won’t be up and running for another two years, Sandvik believes it demonstrates the company’s commitment to delivering material powders to a growing industry.
“This investment is an enabler for future growth and means that we are expanding our metal powder offering to include virtually all alloy groups of relevance today,” said Annika Roos, Head of Product Area Powder at Sandvik Materials Technology. “In addition, it will also support the overall additive manufacturing business at Sandvik.”
“The metal powder segment and the additive manufacturing business are of increasingly strategic importance to us,” added Goran Bjorkman, President of Sandvik Materials Technology. “This investment should be viewed as the latest evidence of our commitment to an area that we believe strongly in.”
