Kennametal launches Stellite powder for Additive Manufacturing
April 7, 2021
Kennametal Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, has launched Stellite 21 AM™ powder, reportedly the first Stellite™ powder qualified for Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) Additive Manufacturing, and the latest addition to Kennametal Additive Manufacturing’s portfolio of high-performance metal powders for AM.
Kennametal Additive Manufacturing is the company’s AM and production business unit within its Infrastructure segment. The business drew on deep expertise in metal powder production for hard facing and thermal spray applications to develop its Stellite 21 AM powder. It is available direct to customers for use in their own Additive Manufacturing applications or in combination with Kennametal’s end-to-end additive production capabilities to make fully finished components.
Valued for its corrosion resistance and wear, the Stellite 21 alloy has a long history of success in traditional manufacturing applications in the oil and gas, power generation and aerospace industries. Stellite 21 AM powder enables customers to achieve similar wear and corrosion resistance properties in additively manufactured parts. It is ideally suited for flow control applications and can be integrated into complex designs to mitigate cavitation, erosion, or corrosion failures.
“Kennametal Additive Manufacturing is drawing on our longstanding expertise in metal powder production to help our customers leverage the advantages of 3D printing and make better parts, faster and more efficiently,” stated Sam Lomasney, Marketing Portfolio Manager. “The addition of Stellite 21 AM powder to our portfolio of high-performance cobalt, nickel and iron powders is another proof point of how we continue to innovate in materials for Additive Manufacturing.”
The new powder’s composition features a Cobalt Chrome Molybdenum alloy matrix, containing dispersed hard carbides which strengthen the alloy and increase its hardness while decreasing the material’s ductility. It also has excellent corrosion and thermal & mechanical shock resistance.
Kennametal Additive Manufacturing offers comprehensive AM solutions, from raw material to finished part. It utilises gas atomisation powder production capabilities to supply cobalt, nickel and iron powders optimised for specific AM processes. In addition to the new Stellite 21 AM powder, the business also recently added Delcrome 17-4 AM™ and Delcrome 316L AM™ powders for PBF-LB machines to its portfolio of additive powders.
At its research and development, prototyping and production centre in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Kennametal Additive Manufacturing utilises PBF-LB and Binder Jetting (BJT) technologies, combined with post-processing capabilities, including sintering, Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) and machining, to produce fully-finished wear components. These include parts additively manufactured with powders specifically designed for AM, including Kennametal KAC89 tungsten carbide and Stellite 6 AM™, a wear-resistant cobalt-chrome alloy.
