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Metal powders at Formnext 2018
Formnext 2018: How the growth of metal AM is driving changes to the metal powder landscape Whilst machine builders once again dominated Formnext 2018, the world’s metal powder producers have also become an increasingly important part of the event as the industry evolves towards serial production. In the following report, Toby Tingskog highlights some of the major events in the world of AM-related metal powder production in 2018, along with a number of trends that became apparent as a result of conversations with producers in the exhibit hall.
Formnext 2018 was, as anticipated, the key event for the Additive Manufacturing industry this year. The floor space was dominated by the major machine manufacturers, with plenty of smaller support companies displaying their solutions for powder handling, screening, testing, etc. Naturally, without metal powder it would be impossible to produce parts using the Powder Bed Fusion technologies which form the core of existing metal AM applications, so it is interesting to follow the developments in this area, to understand the trends in the market and to consider what the supply situation will be in the future – will there be a metal powder shortage, or perhaps over-supply? Will prices come down? Not counting OEMs, some thirty different metal powder producers/ sellers exhibited at this year’s show, offering a range of perspectives in this area. There were a couple of relatively major events in the AM metal powder industry this year, one of which was Carpenter Technology’s purchase of AM powder specialist LPW Technology. The Carpenter–LPW
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development was announced only a few weeks before Formnext, allowing little time for integration ahead of the show; the large LPW booth displayed a Carpenter logo, but there was no separate Carpenter Technology booth. Integration is now reported to be underway with an emphasis on servicing current customers at
both companies. The Summer 2018 issue of Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine (Vol. 4 No. 2) gives a detailed overview of LPW’s activities and its new facility dedicated to AM powder. Carpenter Powder Products is one of the largest producers of gas atomised powder with a full range of alloys, including titanium following its
Fig. 1 Formnext was once again the global meeting point for the metal AM industry in 2018 (Photo Mesago / Mathias Kutt)
Metal Additive Manufacturing | Winter 2018
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