Extremely hard austenitic stainless steel developed by Kolibri Metals
Kolibri Metals GmbH, Amtzell, Germany, has developed a new stainless steel powder for metal Additive Manufacturing that is reported to offer a hardness of more than 40 HRC. Named Pacayal, the new austenitic stainless steel achieves its hardness during the Additive Manufacturing build process, without requiring any subsequent heat treatments.
Pacayal, which can be processed using Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) machines, also provides a higher acid resistance when compared to ferritic or martensitic stainless steels.
A hardness of 40 HRC is around twice as high as that offered by the more widespread 1.4404 steel, often used in AM, which usually has a hardness of approximately 20 HRC.
Kolibri Metals stated that the background for the development of the material was the increased demand from its customers for harder, corrosion- and acid-resistant steels, which are increasingly used in the field of fluid conveyance in pharmacy, medical technology or nozzle manufacturing.
