6K Additive, a manufacturer of sustainable metal alloys for additive manufacturing, announced the acquisition of Global Metal Powders (GMP). The acquisition provides additional proprietary manufacturing and recycling capabilities used in material preparation prior to the UniMelt spheroidization process developed by 6K Additive. Combined with the recently announced doubling of production capacity, the acquisition strengthens the company’s position as a global leader in the sustainable production of titanium and refractory metal powders.
Using proprietary GMP technology, 6K Additive will produce custom powders from a wide variety of reversible metal alloy streams, including titanium (Ti), chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo), niobium (Nb), tantalum (Ta), and tungsten (W) . GMP’s manufacturing facility is located in New Castle, Pennsylvania, USA, and 6K Additive will continue its manufacturing processes at this location.
6K Additive is the world’s first manufacturer of sustainably sourced 3D printing metal powders and offers a full range of premium powders including nickel, titanium, copper, stainless steel, aluminum alloys and refractory metals such as tungsten, niobium and rhenium. The patented UniMelt system is the world’s only production-scale microwave plasma powder production system, with a highly uniform and precise plasma zone, zero contamination and high-throughput production capability.
Last year, the company published the results of an LCA study conducted by Foresight Management comparing the environmental impact of UniMelt microwave plasma technology with current atomization technologies for producing metal powders. The results showed a 90% reduction in energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions for nickel-based alloys and a 75% reduction for titanium alloys.
Source: 6K Additive press materials