PyroGenesis Canada Inc, a manufacturer of plasma waste-to-energy systems and plasma torch products, has announced plans to ultimately spin-off 80% of its additive manufacturing (AM) business into an independent publicly traded company.
After the successful spin-off, the new company will have all rights to produce metal and alloy powders, including small spherical titanium powders, for the AM industry, using PyroGenesis’ technology and to distribute powder production systems and equipment under an exclusive worldwide license with PyroGenesis, which will continue to benefit from supplying systems and equipment to the company. It will also provide standard maintenance and technical support services for each system purchased for up to US$750,000 per system per year. PyroGenesis will also receive royalty payments of up to ten percent (10%) of powder production revenues from the new company.
The transaction is expected to be staged over the next four months. Currently, PyroGenesis refers to the new company as 3DCo, although the final name is yet to be determined.
‘Spinning off 3DCo will help attract an investor base best suited to the company’s unique value proposition, particular business operations and financial characteristics, thereby maximizing shareholder value and placing it in a better position to ramp up, generate revenues, and develop strategic relationships/partners than had it remained part of PyroGenesis,’ said P Peter Pascali, president and CEO of PyroGenesis. ‘As such, 3DCo will be able to sharpen its strategic focus and provide flexibility to capitalize on the unique growth opportunities within its market sector. At the same time, it will provide PyroGenesis with a source of repeat business and recurring revenues as well as an investment position in a vibrant public company.’
Significant improvements
‘Our plasma atomization system produces powders of the highest purity, while being extremely spherical, and having a very narrow particle size distribution, making it ideally suited for the powder requirements of the growing 3D printing industry,’ said Pierre Carabin, director of engineering of PyroGenesis. ‘Building on our history of providing such powders to the biomedical industry (since before 2004), combined with our developed expertise and knowhow in metal powder production, our team of engineers have recently made significant improvements to our current technology, laying down the groundwork for future success.’
This story uses material from PyroGenesis, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.