Specialty chemicals groupALTANA宣布收购金属粉末专家TLS Technik Spezialpulverand Aluminium Materials Technologies (AMT), advancing the group’sECKARTdivision.
The double buyout will serve to strategically expand ECKART’s 3D printing materials portfolio with the development of new and novel alloys for industrial applications.
Martin Babilas, CEO of ALTANA, states: “With this step we are continuing to implement ALTANA’s strategy of generating value-creating growth through targeted acquisitions, even in difficult economic times.”
Metal powder production with TLS
TLS has been producing high-quality metal 3D printing powders out of Bitterfeld, Germany for over 25 years. According to Dr. Wolfgang Schütt, head of ALTANA’s ECKART Division, TLS’ expertise in the field will complement ECKART’s specialist knowledge in the atomization of metals greatly, and the pair will be working to develop new functional applications for their joint materials.
就目前而言，ECKART提供了腐蚀保护材料，生产充气混凝土的成分，甚至提供太空旅行的燃料。作为收购的一部分，ECKART还将与大约40名员工一起接管TLS的Bitterfeld生产设施，并整合其运营，以推动Eckart的一些现有产品。该交易仍需要反托拉斯当局的批准，但预计将在2020年底之前进行。
AMT and the A20X alloy
UK-based AMT is known for the development of the now-patentedA20X3D printing aluminum alloy, a lightweight material characterized by its high strength and excellent mechanical properties. It is primarily intended for the laser powder bed fusion process, and was specially formulated for high stress, high temperature applications. An ultimate tensile strength of 511MPa, a yield strength of 440MPa, and an elongation at break of 13% make for significantly better fatigue properties when compared to similar Al-Si based 3D printing alloys.
Through the acquisition, ECKART will now have full access to the novel material, and will be able to further develop it for the production of aerospace components.
Dr. Schütt concludes: “AMT and its A20X alloy complement TLS’ capabilities, enabling us to offer users even more high-performance materials in the future, including in the aerospace industry, a key market for metallic 3D printing.”
th的质量e powder in a metal 3D printed part is often just as important the machine used to fabricate it.APWORKS, a specialist in aerospace 3D printing, has previously announced that its aluminum alloy,Scalmalloy, was added to the Formula 1 regulationsas an approved additive manufacturing material. The high strength alloy was originally developed by APWORKS and its parent companyAirbus对于航空航天组件，但此后在其他高性能应用中找到了其用途，例如赛车运动。
Elsewhere,EOS, the global leader in LB-PBF systems, expanded its offering of additive powders earlier this year with the release ofeight new metal powdersand processes for use with its M 290, M 300-4, and M 400-4 3D printing systems. The new material set consists of one Premium and seven Core products. The Premium material is ToolSteel 1.2709, an ultra-high strength maraging steel designed for high-stress molding applications.
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Featured image shows inside of an ALTANA ECKART production facility. Photo via ECKART.
