Metalysis and K Home partner to scale up production of titanium powder for Additive Manufacturing
May 19, 2016
Metalysis, based in Rotherham, UK, has announced a new partnership with K Home International, an engineering and design consultancy specialising in the primary metals industry headquartered in Stockton-on-Tees, UK. It was stated that the new partnership will pave the way for a significant scale-up in production of titanium powder developed through Metalysis’ patented process, which lowers costs and produces tailored powders for AM customers.
Metalysis recently announced that it had secured £20 million of new investment, with Iluka Resources and Woodford Patient Capital Trust injecting funds into the expansion of the company’s production and development capabilities. This agreement will see K Home become Metalysis’ preferred engineering partner, providing additional expertise to support the drive towards commercial-scale delivery.
The strategic partnership will draw together the industry expertise of both companies to progress the commercial application of Metalysis’ technology, further expanding its capacity, lowering production costs and increasing efficiency, which in turn will enable a greater number of companies to license and implement the process.
Drawing on the experience of partnering on a number of assignments during recent years, K Home will help to expand the commercial implementation of Metalysis’ current technologies, bringing skills and resources to enhance the design, building and operation of commercial production facilities.
Metalysis’ technology transforms ores directly into metal powders using electrolysis in just a single step. This technique can be used to lower the cost of producing high value metal powders such as titanium and tantalum, which can be used in a variety of new applications to satisfy the growing demand for low cost, light weight, high strength and corrosion resistant metals. High grade and uniform, the lower-cost powders suit a wide variety of industrial AM processes, which are currently being trialled and implemented across the aerospace, automotive and biomedical engineering industries.
“This partnership represents a very exciting opportunity to bring together such immense, complementary expertise to expand and strengthen our production capacity,” stated Dion Vaughan, CEO of Metalysis. “This combined experience, underpinned by a recent injection of investment, represents a powerful platform for growth, which will enable us to deliver greater volumes of product for our customers and support further innovation in new sectors going forward.”
Andrew Home, CEO of K Home International, added, “Bringing together our team with our partners at Metalysis represents a fantastic opportunity to build on the success of numerous projects that we have collectively delivered over the past few years. We hope that by working together we can drive Metalysis’ patented techniques of metal production into new sectors and draw on our collective experience to expand our reach into new and broader international markets.”
