SSI Sintered Specialties invested in a high-temperature refractory metal-lined vacuum furnace from Elnik Systems to expand its services into powder-metallurgy processes. The furnace, which is scheduled for installation in September 2021, will join a growing fleet of new equipment at SSI’s technology center in Janesville, Wis. Along with providing customers advanced powder-metallurgy processing, this investment positions SSI to immediately target the addition of metal 3D printing to its portfolio and the expansion of its current metal injection molding (MIM) operations. The furnace will also allow SSI to develop sintering profiles for both technologies.

GKN Powder Metallurgy launched a dedicated green hydrogen unit, GKN Hydrogen, on May 11 with a virtual market launch event. GKN Hydrogen is pioneering emission-free, safe and compact all-in-one renewable-energy storage solutions to drive global energy transition. The company’s secure systems generate green hydrogen from fluctuating renewable energy sources, storing it compactly and safely in metal hydride over long periods of time. When needed, the green hydrogen can be used directly or converted back into electricity and heat for a range of applications. The scalable system design allows for maximum versatility, from emergency power backup and off-grid energy supply to maritime transport and large-scale industry.

Hard lessons learned from the 2020 pandemic taught us that we needed to rebuild and re-establish our U.S. supply-chain ecosystem. The systemic shock to our global supply chains left us with bottlenecks, shortages and an acute awareness of our overdependence on imports.

A new line of powder products can be bundled with advanced engineering services to assist customers in achieving optimal results for specialty metal additive-manufacturing (AM) applications.

Swedish heating technology company Kanthal and metals research institute Swerim will invest in ultra-modern atomizing equipment. The investment is worth approximately $2.39 million. The new equipment is designed for research and development of both materials and the atomizing process in the area of powder metallurgy (PM). It allows for atomizing of powder batches up to about 187 pounds (85 kg), both for additive manufacturing (AM) and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) applications. The unit has high material and process flexibility, which means great possibilities in development of materials and processes aiming toward both AM and PM.

Here is a complete list of all the feature articles – by topic – that appeared in Industrial Heating in 2020. The month each article appeared in is included. All articles are hyperlinked for your convenience.

If you’re at all like me, you wonder which articles get the most attention on our website. Every year we publish around 45 feature articles, and at the end of the year we gather statistics to see which ones get the most page views. So, without further ado, here are the five most-viewed articles on www.industrialheating.com based on page views. This ranking applies only to articles published in 2020.

Liberty Powder Metals, part of the GFG Alliance, started commercial production at its new Teesside powder-metals facility, targeting fast-growing demand from the 3D-printing industry. The company will produce a range of stainless steel and nickel superalloy powders for precision components in the automotive, aerospace and engineering industries. Minute spherical powder particles are processed to the highest specifications in a vacuum induction argon gas atomizer, which Liberty Powder Metals says is the only one of its kind in the U.K.

When you think of all the ways to join metals, friction stir welding probably isn’t the first concept that pops into your head. This is especially true if you use powder metallurgy.

G-M Enterprises, a Nitrex company, received a multimillion-dollar order from a global manufacturer of metal injection molding (MIM) products for two horizontal vacuum furnaces. These 2-bar sintering furnaces have a work area measuring 36 inches wide x 30 inches high x 84 inches long (900 x 762 x 2,100 mm), a 4,400-pound weight capacity, a maximum operating temperature of 2600°F (1430°C) and uniformity of +/- 10°F (+/- 5.5°C). A multistage debinder trap system designed to thermally extract binder from the parts is integral to the vacuum system. Sintering and debinding occur in a single cycle using a unique system design that is optimized to handle the maximum designed load capacity. Consequently, there is never a need to operate below the rated load capacity to achieve the required part quality.