Australian advanced manufacturing company Titomic Limited recently announces it has executed an Exclusive License Agreement with CSIRO and an Acquisition Agreement with Future Titanium Technologies. The Exclusive License Agreement with CSIRO grants Titomic exclusive global rights to two patents for the production of Pipe, as well as Continuous Pipe manufactured using Titanium and Titanium Alloys which will open significant revenue opportunities for Titomic across a number of major industries, in particular the Oil and Gas, Defence, Marine and Mining sectors.
Under the agreement, Titomic will also receive more than 8 years of exclusive innovative additive manufacturing techniques, background IP, and Know How for the production of pipe and pipe components including, but not limited to, Valves and Fitting Components. This technology results from the 2010 Victorian Government initiated Victorian Direct Manufacturing Centre (VDMC) program, which received contributions of approx. $10M, from industry, and research providers to help revitalise the manufacturing sector and deliver economic and environmental benefits to Victoria.
Pipe can now be Additively Manufactured (Metal 3D Printing) using Titomic Kinetic Fusion (TKF) systems without the size and profile constraints of traditional pipe manufacturing techniques.
TKF produced metal pipe has superior wear and corrosion resistant properties in comparison to traditional wrought metal pipe. By utilising TKF’s production method of fusing dissimilar metals for pipes, valves and fitting components means industries will be able to gain access to next generation dual-wall materials for superior wear and corrosive resistance properties applicable to industries such as Oil and Gas, Defence, Marine and Mining sectors.
Titomic can now exploit this technology commercially due to these key performance factors:
1) Quality: Titanium TKF produced metal pipe has superior wear and corrosion resistant properties.
2) Scale: TKF produced pipe has no size and profile constraints compared to traditional pipe manufacturing techniques.
3) Cost: Titomic cost effective powder supply chain has overcome the largest barrier to entry for Additive Manufacturing suppliers into Oil and Gas, Defence, Marine and Mining sectors. (see Titomic’s Dec 2018 ASX releases a) Sino-Euro and; b) Lasting Titanium)
4) Speed: The TKF automated production line enables industry to manufacture continuous metal pipe using Additive Manufacturing.
5) Sustainability: Australia dominates the world’s resources for titanium minerals, and Titomic is making a valuable contribution to establishing a titanium manufacturing industry and adding value to Australian natural resources.
As an example, the oil & gas industry are one of the world’s largest users of valves. The inventory required and the lifecycle of these valves and fitting components is significantly influenced by sediments, sand, rock and other abrasive matter running through the pipe and fitting components during the extraction process. These new patents and knowledge capabilities will allow Titomic to produce piping, valves and fitting components with a significantly higher wear resistance than current piping being used.
There are significant cost and efficiency savings for consumers of piping and fitting components not only through longer life cycles of parts, less down time, lower maintenance costs, but TKF systems can also produce piping, values and fitting components with new superalloys and metallurgical fusion of metal powders, combined with alloys, ceramics, polymers and composites to deliver superior performance properties.
This offers opportunities never before available to industries whereby the outside material of a product can be selected for the external environmental factors, for example: metals with corrosive protection from salt water, and the internal material of the product can be a different metal for the internal use factors, for example: high wear protection from abrasive materials.
Mr. Jeff Lang, Titomic Managing Director commented:
“This is a significant expansion of Titomic’s IP and associated revenue opportunities. By adding these two new patents we are broadening our footprint in the Titanium and Titanium Alloys Additive Manufacturing space to firmly secure our future market segments.
Our fundamental strategy has been well timed and managed to perfectly combine the securing of cost-effective metal powder supply chain, with the expansion of our IP portfolio positioning Titomic as the global leader in viable metal Additive Manufacturing.
To capitalise on the significant $300+ Billion global interest Titomic has received from the Oil & Gas, Mining, and Marine industries to provide more sustainable and cost-effective AM manufacturing, these new TKF technologies enable Titomic to provide viable digital manufacturing capabilities leading to significant short, mid and long-term revenue opportunities.”
Stefan Gulizia, Research Group Leader at CSIRO, commented;
“Working with companies like Titomic shows that manufacturing remains a key driver in the Australian economy.
We are pleased that Titomic are licensing the rights to utilise and further commercialise CSIRO research in developing new products and processes that go towards supporting productivity gains, boosting sustainability and helping capture emerging opportunities in local and global markets.”
