Cold spray technology was first invented by the former Soviet Academy of Sciences Siberian Branch in the mid-1980s, and is currently mainly used for machinery maintenance. In the United States, the technology is most used in the military field, mainly for repairing magnesium alloy helicopter parts of the US military. However, the materials used are softer alloys with lower melting points, such as copper, aluminum, and zinc.
However, with the development of this technology, materials suitable for cold spray technology are becoming more and more abundant. Recently, Australian Titomic has reached a cooperation with global defense manufacturers to provide 2 equipment and other services with a total value of up to 25 million US dollars.
From design to certification
Titomic's Kinetic Fusion cold spray technology can 3D print industrial-grade titanium parts at speeds 5-20 times faster than DED directional energy deposition. This technology accelerates titanium particles at supersonic speeds and can be used to make parts that are 9 x 3 x 1.5 meters in size and significantly reduce material costs.
Titomic has entered into a binding agreement with Composite Technology. The contract will provide two Titomic KineticFusion ("TKF") systems, which will generate approximately $ 25 million in sales revenue for Titomic. Under the agreement, Composite Technology provides certification of products and components for defense-related products (NATO replacement parts) to ensure quality related to the design, development and production processes.
The TKF manufacturing process will be certified by Composite Technology to provide defense products to the global defense market. Composite Technology requires extensive research and prototyping based on Titomic's manufacturing technology for two years to ensure that it meets the design, development, and production capabilities of TKF manufacturing systems and meets quality requirements in the defense field.
In addition, as part of the cooperation agreement, Composite Technology and Titomic will jointly develop new materials technology and manufacturing process IP, which are only used for the development and manufacturing of defense products.
3D Science Valley Review
3D Science Valley previously mentioned that cold spray technology is not uncommon in manufacturing, including GE's cold spray technology and Australian Titomic's cold spray technology. It also includes Plasma Giken and Inovati. Inovati Company in the United States is an early and successful manufacturer of low pressure cold spray equipment in the world, headquartered in California, USA.
The use of nitrogen or helium to accelerate metal powders to supersonic speeds results in deposition rates of up to 45 Kg of material per hour. For the parts that Titomic can produce, the conventional processing time of structural parts requires up to 200 hours, and the cold spraying process of Titomic can be completed in 6 hours. In contrast, EBAM can deposit materials at a rate of 9.07 kg / hour, and the DED for powder feeding can almost reach 2.9 kg / hour, while another DED technology for wire feeding (such as the equipment of Norsk Titanium) can reach 2 kg / hour hour.
The most significant advantage of Titomic's process is not just the material's ability to withstand it. For some, titanium may be one of the richest metals on earth, but it is very expensive. One reason for the high cost is related to the titanium extraction process of the Kroll process. This requires demanding process steps including extraction, purification, sponge production, alloy manufacturing, forming, and forming.
Australia has abundant resources of titanium-bearing ores. There are several processes that can produce titanium powder directly from the ore, cost-effectively, without having to go through the very energy-intensive Kroll process. In addition, the current process produces rods by extracting titanium, which are later atomized to produce powder again, which is a high energy-consuming process. In order to be competitive, the cost of titanium powder for additive manufacturing needs to drop from the current US $ 300 / kg to around US $ 20-50 / kg.
Another reason why titanium powders for additive manufacturing are currently so expensive is related to the inefficiency of the atomization process. 3D Scientific Valley understands that low extraction rate is a bottleneck commonly encountered in the industry, and according to Titomic, most atomized powders (up to 80%) cannot be used in additive manufacturing processes because of imperfect impurities and particle sizes. This means that output is inconsistent, prices remain high, and demand is not met. Although this is currently not a major problem in high value-added applications such as medical and aerospace, it limits the widespread adoption of additive manufacturing technology in mass production and mass production in other fields.
3D Scientific Valley learned that Titomic has contacted up to 69 titanium powder suppliers and manufacturers, but the titanium powder used for additive systems accounts for a small percentage of the revenue of these powder manufacturers. Most manufacturers only sell about 10 per year. Thousands of dollars of titanium powder for additive manufacturing, and powder manufacturing equipment can cost millions of dollars.
In order to reduce the requirements for titanium powder, Titomic's technology has been able to use rough titanium powder to produce 9 x 3 x 1.5 meter parts. In fact, there is no inherent limitation on size. Because no heat is applied, the part will not bend and delamination will not occur. This is not only a processing advantage compared to forging. Considering the cost of forging equipment, each equipment is about $ 20 million or more. Titomic claims that their system can replace metal castings and forgings.