PyroGenesis Additive, a division of PyroGenesis Canada, has developed a new plasma-based process to produce metal powders suitable for additive manufacturing (AM) which reportedly enables metal injection molded (MIM) cut powder production at higher volumes.
‘The MIM cut refers to a particularly small metal powder size typically used in metal injection molding, and is now becoming of interest to certain 3D metal printer manufacturers,’ said P Peter Pascali, president and CEO of PyroGenesis. ‘The metal powder sizes we deal with are measured in microns, with the MIM cut typically being between 5-20 microns, and sometimes as high as 25 microns.
‘Several months ago, the company was approached by a number of companies who were interested in MIM cut titanium powder and whereby it became apparent to us that the appetite for this ultra-fine powder was significant. As a result, we decided to pause our ramp-up phase to make adjustments to our plasma atomization technology in order to try and shift the particle size distribution towards this low end of the spectrum, and produce powders in the range required for such ‘inkjet’ type 3D printing machines.’
This story is reprinted from material from PyroGenesis, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
