6K Additive wins five-year contract for US Army Development Command

6K Additive – a division of 6K Inc. and a leader in the sustainable production of metal powder 3D printing materials, announced a 5-year blanket purchase agreement (BPA) from Army Contracting Command to support the U.S. Army Development Command (DEVCOM) for strategic, high-performance metal powders. The BPA supports increased weapons research and development initiatives at DEVCOM and helps meet additional demand for prototype and low-volume production.

The BPA is available to entities at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, Benet Labs in New York, Adelphi Laboratories in Maryland, and Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois. 6K Additive metal powders will be produced using UniMelt’s proprietary microwave plasma platform, which underpins 6K’s ability to source, process and recover component scrap, shop scrap and spent powders for processing into aerospace-grade metal powders.

6K’s UniMelt plasma production system has the unique ability to convert high-quality metal scrap in various forms into high-performance metal powders for additive manufacturing, metal injection molding and other powder metallurgy production techniques. In doing so, they provide for the first time access to vast supplies of strategically important metals and alloys such as nickel and titanium from machine shops and boneyards, as well as refractory powders such as C103, tungsten and others that are mission critical to the modern soldier .

The patented 6K Additive process cleans, prepares and spheroidizes alloy scrap into high-quality powders with performance superior to atomization technologies. This process will ensure the U.S. military has a secure, traceable domestic supply of critical materials while eliminating unexpected performance anomalies resulting from questionable foreign sourcing.

The U.S. Department of Defense will benefit in several ways by working with 6K Additive:

• reducing the risk of dependence on foreign supplies – due to the limited availability in the country of strategic metals, such as superalloys, the possibility of using materials from domestic landfills and mechanical workshops, such as end-of-life components, workshop scrap or used powders, and processing them into high-quality materials quality, ensures the U.S. military has a safe domestic supply of critical metals.
• increased closed-loop security – quality and consistency of materials sourced abroad is key. Recycling pre-qualified DOD parts, shop scrap and spent powders creates a closed loop of materials of known and traceable quality. Unexpected performance anomalies due to questionable origins can be prevented.
• advanced systems faster in the field – high-quality recycled materials will help the Department of Defense more quickly develop and deploy advanced additive manufacturing, metal injection molding and powder forging processes, enabling the creation of parts with novel functionality, shortening engineering cycles and accelerating “production” “flying” cycles “. This translates into increased mortality at reduced costs.
• managing costs while maximizing quality – using already certified scrap as raw material dramatically reduces the material cost of manufactured parts and ensures they meet the desired specifications.

Source: 6k Additive press materials