Dion Vaughn

A U.K.-headquartered company with a solid-state alloy powder technology recently announced its launch of the world’s first industrial-scale metal alloy powder production facility based on the company’s process.

Metalysis will produce valuable alloy powders at the new plant, located in the company’s Materials Manufacturing Centre in Wath upon Dearne, South Yorkshire, U.K.

The Generation 4 (“Gen4”) project was mechanically completed on time in Q4 2017. It has since undergone hot commissioning, trial runs, optimization and handover to Operations, signaling Metalysis’ transition into commercial production following more than a decade of phased technology development.

Gen4 is the first facility to take Metalysis’ solid-state, modular, electrochemical process to industrial scale and can produce tens-to-hundreds of tonnes per annum of high value, niche and master alloys. It creates a new U.K. source of supply for global end-users in advanced manufacturing disciplines including aerospace, automotive, batteries, light-weighting, magnets, mining and 3D printing consumables.

A standout benefit of Metalysis’ technology is its multi-metal capability, which enables it to produce alloy “recipes” that comparable processing routes cannot. Where conventional technologies are unable to elegantly combine elements with melting and density differentials, this technology can because it is a solid-state process. Gen4 enables Metalysis to commercially produce a demand-driven product mix of titanium alloys; master alloys including Scandium-Aluminide, which continues to pose excellent launch product potential as announced on 11 June 2018; compositionally complex alloys including High Entropy Alloys; magnet materials; high-temperature materials; and Platinum Group Metal alloys.

“In powering up and operating our industrial plant, Metalysis is poised to achieve its target to generate significant profits from our new South Yorkshire production facility,” said Dr. Dion Vaughan, Chief Executive Officer. “Ours is a true British success story with international implications. Metalysis has grown from the ‘lightbulb moment’ at Cambridge University in the late-1990s, relocated to South Yorkshire to benefit from regional excellence in operational skillsets in the early-2000s, and now onwards towards a bright commercial future.”