T GE Höganäs AB
What does a decades old metal powder titan bring to Additive Manufacturing? In conversation with Höganäs AB The metal Additive Manufacturing landscape is filled with ambitious, wellfunded startups, all promising a wealth of materials innovation and ambitious value propositions. In contrast to these newcomers, Höganäs AB has been a powerful force in the metal powder market for near eighty years, producing half a million tonnes of metal powder annually. Is there a role for such a titan of Powder Metallurgy in the brave new world of AM? Emily-Jo HopsonVandenBos spoke to Kennet Almkvist, president, Höganäs Customization Technologies, about what the company brings to the table.
To the wider world of metal powders, Sweden’s Höganäs AB needs little introduction. For newcomers to the world of metal Additive Manufacturing who are unfamiliar with the landscape of metal powder production, however, perhaps some introduction is necessary. Founded in 1797 as a coal mining company in a small Swedish fishing town bearing the same name, Höganäs established its first iron powder production plant to serve the post-war industrial market of 1946 and, in the seventy-six years since, has gone on to become a world market leader for iron and other metal powders, with an annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes. As of 2022, the company serves 3,000 customers in seventy-five countries and operates sales offices or plants in sixteen, from which it supplies a range of more than 3,500 products, most tailored to its customers’ specific needs. It holds around 800 patents, employs 2,400 staff, and in 2021 reported a full-year turnover of 10,520 MSEK (approx. $1 billion). No exaggeration is necessary: Höganäs is a metal powder titan.
Vol. 8 No. 1 © 2022 Inovar Communications Ltd
Of course, not all 500,000 tonnes of Höganäs’s capacity is produced for press and sinter Powder Metallurgy (PM). According to the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF), annual worldwide metal powder production exceeds 635,000 tonnes [1] and, based on the latest industry figures published by the European Powder Metallurgy Association (EPMA) and
MPIF, press and sinter PM had an annual powder consumption volume of about 450,000 tonnes in 2020 in North America and Europe combined [2, 3]. Höganäs’s markets include the ‘other’ world of metal powder not covered by this magazine’s remit, such as brazing, soil/groundwater remediation, surface coating, water treatment, and other industries,
Fig. 1 Höganäs AB’s headquarters in Höganäs, Sweden
Metal Additive Manufacturing | Spring 2022
151
F PD
| contents | news | events | advertisers | print sub | e-newsletter |