Pyro's powder production improvements & potential marketsSo happy for the Pyro crew on the NASDAQ uplisting, the US market is massive and should bring great exposure for PYR from both retail & institutional investors.
In light of Pyro’s powder production process patent news today, and Peter’s comments in the news release regarding new markets where materials can be economically turned into powders, here's an interesting article on Pyrogenesis’ AM (additive manufacturing) division from 2018. It covers an interview with Massimo Dattilo from Pyrogenesis and is worth revisiting.
https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/pyrogenesis-massimo-dattilo-interview/ The excerpts are in italics for clarity.
DS: Why did you decide to get into the consumables market? MD: Seeing this growing opportunity in AM, and knowing that PyroGenesis has unique expertise with plasma, we realized we had a great opportunity to bring additional value to the industry. Specifically, with our understanding of the printer manufacturers’ equipment and their respective powder size cuts, we were able to bring additional developments to our plasma atomization systems. These developments allow us to produce high purity powders with targeted size cuts. This allows us to produce what our clients need while minimizing waste which translates into a more economical product for our customers. Note that even further developments have been added to the powder production system since this article came out. The plasma atomization process that Pyro was using at the time has been modified through successive technological developments (the patent announced today being the key first patent to cement the basis for the
NexGen plasma atomization process (their new metal powder production process), and it is now approved in Europe.)
With these advancements, Pyrogenesis can focus on targeted powder size cuts while ramping up production rate to over 25 kg/h (for comparison, AP&C, one of Pyro's main competitors for Plasma Atomized powders, has a max Ti powder production rate of 13 kg/h). The optimized powder production drastically cuts down on waste powder and avoids having to find buyers for powder sizes produced that the Client doesn’t want, lowering Pyro's powder production cost by a significant amount. Having to use less Argon gas per kg of powder produced (due to higher production rate) also adds to the savings as Argon is expensive, as is CAPEX for large Argon recycling systems.
Given that their powder production rate at the time of this article was probably around 5 kg/h, you can imagine the significant improvement the modifications would provide to costs & profit margins, and why they decided to halt AM powder operations back in 2019 to incorporate these changes to the production line.
DS: How relevant is AM within PyroGenesis’ overall business? MD: AM is very relevant to PyroGenesis’ overall business. PyroGenesis uses plasma for many applications. One application, for example, is our plasma-based waste-to-energy system, where we destroy waste. We have sold two systems to the US Navy (4 now
). This speaks volumes to our plasma expertise. We also use plasma for mining and metallurgical applications. For example, we are working with one client who is using a plasma process we developed to convert quartz into high purity silicon in a 1-step process (PUREVAP shoutout!)
. This is a game-changing application. Another application is enabling customers who have aluminum smelters to recover aluminum from dross, thus minimizing aluminum losses (DROSRITE)
. Finally, we use plasma to produce high purity powders for the AM industry. Our expertise in plasma processes allows us to produce powders that cater to the aviation, aerospace, biomedical and automotive industries. Our goal is to not only produce high purity Ti64, but to also look at other materials that could benefit from the plasma atomization process. We feel the AM industry is only in its infancy and, with our plasma atomization powder production know-how, this business line will become one of our biggest growth verticals. The demand for high purity materials is only going to grow and PyroGenesis will be there to meet the market’s needs. DS: Which one among all these processes do you believe holds the most potential? MD: I like making the analogy of AM printers to kitchen knives. Every knife has its intended purpose. You might have a steak knife, a butter knife and a bread knife for example. Each AM printer technology caters to specific tasks. Reverting back to the knife analogy, each AM printer technology has its own strengths and weaknesses. They are not necessarily competing with one another but are more likely complimentary. The aerospace and biomedical industries require Ti64 powder because of either its lightweight and/or biocompatibility. Today, we focus on technologies that use Ti64, but in the future, as demand grows, we will expand to what we refer to as “high volume materials” like steel alloys, which have a lower cost and are more common in the automotive industry. Plasma atomized steel alloy powders have incredible properties however, they are cost prohibitive. We are making further advancements to our plasma atomization system and it is conceivable that in the near future these materials become part of our standard offering. It sounds like they could be in a position to produce Plasma atomized Steel-based powders for automotive & other industries, now that their production rate has advanced sufficiently. I’m looking forward to the material becoming one of PyrogenesisAdditive’s many powder offerings in the future (in addition to Titanium, other potential powders they could target, to name a few, are: zirconium, copper, tin, nickel, aluminum, tungsten, and their alloys).
Since Titanium is going to be their main offering, here are some areas where we could see Pyrogenesis’ Ti powders make inroads:
Aerospace industry Titanium powder is a big thing in the Aerospace industry, which is where most of the attention has been drawn by PYR in their news releases. For aerospace companies, 3D printing titanium helps to reduce the weight of highly-loaded structures, making it extremely suitable for jet engines, gas turbines and many airframe components.
Biomedical industry The biomedical field, particularly for titanium medical devices and orthopedic devices like spine, hip and knee implants, is commonly associated with AM powders, and is where Pyrogenesis first began selling their powders in the 90s from their original Plasma Atomization system.
Automotive industry Lower cost, high quality spherical Titanium powders from the NexGen system could, as in the case with steel powders, also open up an entry into the Automotive industry, where there is a large potential for automobile components like connecting rods, wheel rim screws, brake pad guide pins, break sealing washers, gearshift knobs, valves, turbo charger wheels, valve spring retainers, exhaust systems, suspension springs, etc. to be made of Titanium using AM processes. These components are ‘chunky’ in nature and difficult to fabricate using cast processes.
This link provides a good look at some of the uses for Ti powder in AM, and as a nice bonus mentions Pyrogenesis’ new powder production system too:
https://amfg.ai/2019/06/18/titanium-3d-printing-guide/ ***
All of the verticals at Pyro are set to make big strides this year, especially the AM division… Peter himself has said 2021 is looking to be the year of Pyro’s AM breakthrough. Even Cathy Woods’ ARK 3D printing ETF has taken notice. Once their powder production is back online, I expect things to progress nicely with Pyro getting increasingly noticed by the AM industry, as they are the inventors of the Plasma Atomization process, and their updated powder process is a significant step forward. There's lots to be excited for this year =)