News last month of a brand new metal powder production company in Italy made analysts look again at the development of the industry in the country. Liz Nickels spoke to its co-founder, Dr Paolo Folgarait, about the new company and how it could boost both traditional and new technologies.
Last month, there was big news for PM: the creation of a whole new powder-producing company, named Numanova Spa and operating from the center of Italy, in the province of Terni (Umbria Region), close to Rome.
The company is a new development from Dr Paolo Folgarait and Italeaf, a holding company which describes itself as ‘a business accelerator for companies and startups in the areas of innovation and cleantech’. With headquarters and plants in Italy at Nera Montoro (Narni), Terni, Milano and Lecce and international offices in London and Hong Kong, the company has its fingers in a number of pies, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and waste management, the ‘internet of things’, and the development and manufacture of civil and commercial drones in mini and micro classes for the professional market. Amongst all these up and coming technologies is Numanova.
Plans are for the company to be active in the production of metal powders of high-quality from metal alloys, ferrous and non-ferrous, for additive manufacturing (AM), metal injection molding (MIM) and hot isostatic pressing (HIP), plasma transferred arc (PTA), surface engineering and laser cladding processes. Potential applications include industries such as aerospace, energy, luxury, mechanical and biomedical. The expected production capacity at regime will be around 600 tons/year of metal powders for the field of additive manufacturing and 250 tons/year for other uses in areas such as aerospace, energy, mechanical, biomedical, surface engineering and laser cladding processes. The company will be equipped with the most advanced production technology of metal powders by gas atomization, and vacuum induction casting, along with atomization plasma technologies and electron beam melting processes.
Optimum time
Numanova Spa is co-founded by Dr Paolo Folgarait, who has been appointed general manager, executive director and shareholder. Previous to his role at Numanova, Dr Paolo Folgarait was CEO at Seamthesis Srl, a technology center of excellence for research, development and technology innovation (R&DTI) with headquarters and operation sites in Italy at Piacenza, Brescia, Nera Montoro (Narni), Rome and Naples. Previous to that, he was general manager at forging company Franchini Acciai SpA (Brescia) and corporate quality and R&D director at Allied International Pipes & Fittings (Piacenza). He was also head of the department metallurgy of steels and superalloys for long products, mechanics and energy at Centro Sviluppo Materiali, a materials company founded in 1963.
This article appeared in the Nov/Dec issue of Metal Powder Report.
