PYR CEO response to Atomization of novel alloys on AGORACOM Great Q & A in this regard. The additive manufacturing division really excited me in the 1st place about PYR...now ALL their divisions makes my imagination run wild 24/7 on how massive PYR will morph into:
Hi Peter,
First off, again, thank you for your unceasingly hard work running the company, and your efforts to engage with us here. It is unfortunately rare and it definitely does not go unnoticed by many of us who have not had the same privilege in our other investments. Now on to the question:
There are some (many) fascinating novel alloys out there with specific use cases - the one I have in mind is a beryllium aluminum alloy that is very stiff for how light weight it is. I suspect many of these special use alloys are being restricted to projects with a lot of funding (military aerospace) because of the low availability / high cost of the material and the potential for waste in traditional parts casting. Have you tested the Pyrogenesis metal atomization process with various alloys beyond the standard Inconel variants (and obviously the non alloy pure metals like titanium)? Do you think it would work for a beryllium aluminum alloy?
The particular alloy that got me thinking about this is Berylcast (see link below). The ability to turn something like that into appropriate feedstock for additive manufacturing would possibly open up more opportunities for it to be used in more conventional parts. I'm sure there are many other materials that would benefit similarly.
https://ibcadvancedalloys.com/products/beryllium-aluminum-alloys/
All the best,
M
Dear Pennytodollar,
First, I would like to thank you for your message and words of encouragement. I would also like to thank you for being patient for an answer. It is appreciated
With respect to your question, we have indeed produced powder from various materials. As you rightly pointed out, we have produced a high purity spherical IN718 powder, which is a standard material Inconel variant. We have also produced high purity commercially pure titanium (CPTi) powder as well as a specialty reactive material for a US government entity.
Regretfully, I cannot give you more details than what has been publicly disclosed however, I can note that, PyroGenesis’ plasma atomization system, NexGen™, can produce powder from a wide variety of wire feedstock. Having said that, Beryllium Aluminum can be found in a wire format and, as such, should be ideally suited for our NexGen™ process.
Hope that Helps.
Peter