British digital metal solutions company Alloyed and German materials manufacturer TANIOBIS have entered into a partnership through which they will identify, develop, manufacture and use high quality titanium and refractory alloy metal powders for additive and other advanced manufacturing applications.
Alloyed is a fairly new name in the digital metal sphere: it was formed following the merger of OxMet Technologies, an Oxford-based alloys development group, and design engineering firm Betatype in late 2019. The company combines both of their offerings to offer a stack of technologies for alloy design and optimization, as well as Process Control and ENGINE technologies for enhanced digital manufacturing performance and AM expertise. One of Alloyed’s main offerings is its Alloys-by-Design (ABD) platform for rapid alloy design and optimization, which simulates the performance of millions of potential alloys for specific applications and facilitates the development of wholly new alloys.
Germany-based TANIOBIS, for its part, (formerly H.C. Starck Tantalum & Niobium) is part of the JX Metals Group and has over 60 years of experience transforming metal ores and secondary materials into high-performance tantalum and niobium-based powders. Working with Alloyed, the company will therefore leverage its metal powder expertise to come up with new material solutions for advanced manufacturing. (The alliance between Alloyed and TANIOBIS makes even more sense when you consider that JX Metals has shared in Alloyed in January 2020.)
“At Alloyed we are very happy to be working with the global team at TANIOBIS to progress innovations with new titanium and refractory alloys for AM,” said Michael Holmes, Managing Director of Alloyed. “The Alloys By Design (ABD) platform, coupled with TANIOBIS’ long-standing and world-leading expertise with tantalum and niobium materials has the potential to open up some new and very exciting application areas for advanced manufacturing applications. This capability together with the Betatype technology stack for adding performance to critical components makes this alliance even more powerful. We are excited to bring these developments to fruition in due course.”
The companies aim to expand the available materials for additive manufacturing applications with new titanium and refractory alloy formulations. Refractory metals, which include tantalum and niobium, are of particular interest because they are traditionally challenging to manufacture but offer highly beneficial properties, like extreme heat and wear resistance. AM has, in recent years, presented itself as an effective way to process this group of metals.
Notably, the combined resources of Alloyed and TANIOBIS cover the entire material development process, from materials analysis and qualification, to material production, to component design and performance, to pilot production. The partners will leverage these to work with third parties to develop new applications across medical, aerospace and e-mobility.
“There is great synergy between TANIOBIS and Alloyed that I believe will serve our clients in limitless ways when it comes to providing end-to-end solutions for new and greatly improved applications with metal AM technologies,” added Katarzyna Kosowski, head of Corporate Business Development & Communication at TANIOBIS. “By collaborating with the experts at Alloyed and their exceptional ABD platform, we are extending our reach and capabilities into new and innovative areas for advanced manufacturing and particularly for additive manufacturing. The opportunities that AM affords has been well documented, but unlocking new materials for AM remains a constant goal. Together with Alloyed, we at TANIOBIS hold one of the keys.”
