Today, Arcam AB announced that Advanced Powders & Coating (AP&C), its Montreal powder subsidiary, has put its third atomization reactor in service, expanding the capacity of its titanium powder manufacturing operation.
AP&C designed and manufactured its third reactor with a new state-of-the-art process control system using proprietary technology for plasma atomization. This means that AP&C now has two production lines that are fully dedicated to titanium products that are basically composed of reactors as well as sieving and mixing equipment.
AP&C has another reactor dedicated solely to Inconel (a family of austenite nickel-chromium-based superalloys) and other alloys. After this most recent expansion and activation, AP&C now has an incredible atomization capacity of over 150 tons of titanium alloys per year — a good sign for metal additive manufacturing, which is becoming more in demand.
“The need for high-end titanium powder is driven by the fast growth and adoption of additive manufacturing. Arcam is determined to serve the industry through cost-efficient solutions, thus converting traditional manufacturing into additive manufacturing. A requisite is to offer highest quality powder for production at competitive cost,” according to Magnus René, CEO of Arcam.
“With this investment in capacity, we continue to drive AP&C’s mission to be the reference for high quality titanium and other high-melting point alloy powders for the aerospace and medical industries,” remarked Jacques Mallette, president of AP&C.
Plasma atomization can produce powders of particle size distribution (PSD) ranging from 0 to 250 µm. The spherical powders of reactive and high melting point materials include titanium, nickel, zirconium, molybdenum, niobium, tantalum, tungsten, as well as their alloys. The process purifies the metals and their alloys to the highest degree in order to create extremely spherical particles and reduce satellites content as much as possible.
AP&C offers many PSDs that meet the strict requirements for a variety of commercial applications. The typical PSDs available are 0-25 µm, 0-45 µm, 10-45 µm, 15-45 µm, 25-45 µm, 45-106 µm, 45-150 µm, 0-250 µm and 45-250 µm. Tailored particle size distributions are also available from AP&C on request.