6K Additive

Earlier this month, 6K Additive was invited by Savannah River National Laboratory to attend their workshop on additive manufacturing. What a great opportunity it was to engage with some of the brightest minds in the industry. With a focus on refractory alloys, much of the workshop's discussions were around pushing the boundaries of additive manufacturing — especially in extreme environments where materials like tantalum, niobium and tungsten alloys are critical. It was great to contribute 6K Additive's capabilities to manufacture refractory alloy powders, at scale and from domestic raw material sources. We are proud to support our National Labs and other government organizations on their ground breaking work. Thanks to Drew Snelling and the team for all the work to make the day a success. #AdditiveManufacturing #RefractoryMetals #NationalLabs #Tantalum #Niobium #Tungsten #Defense #Energy

More exciting work from the Deposition Science and Technology group at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory! This time it is Laser-DED processed C103 Niobium Alloy! https://lnkd.in/evrYhWib Michael Kirka Saket Thapliyal Julio Ortega Sebastien Dryepondt Brian Jordan

METAL 3D PRINTING IS A DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY It is not exclusively this, but it is this to a very large extent. Reasons/observations: 1️⃣ Suppressors have become a standard component of military firearms. The suppressor is a fluid (gas) handling device. Formerly assembled through welding, it is one of those parts now made additively that will be made additively from here on out. It is hard to miss how much laser powder bed fusion capacity is currently being devoted to making suppressors. 2️⃣ The kinds of AM-enabled advances that have assisted the commercial space industry directly apply to guided weapons systems as well. 3️⃣ The Department of Defense has a practice and culture of supporting innovation via suppliers and contractors. Commercial business generally is not like this. A new idea for a commercial business either must be developed in-house, or it must arrive fully developed by the supplier. With the DoD, there is a funded innovation path allowing a technology set like AM to find its applications and advances through the work of various companies. 4️⃣ The military wants shorter and less complex supply chains. AM enables this through part consolidation and inventory replacement. To be sure, every manufacturing buyer wants shorter and simpler supply chains. But the military is most apt to pursue this because of its added need for supply chains that can function during times of disruption and challenged logistics. 5️⃣ Military production has to be (A) scalable within a short period of time while also (B) shelvable for a long period of time between conflicts. Additive is distinctively both. No tooling is needed to scale production – digital files can be sent to more machines. Meanwhile, the fully digital process means there is no tooling to become lost over time, and production is easy to resume even in a far future after the original suppliers are gone. WHY ALL THIS MATTERS: Production is the foundation of military responsiveness, so all of manufacturing is a defense technology to some extent. But defense is particularly suited to metal AM and metal AM leans toward the priorities of defense. Seeing this helps us understand a significant part of what metal AM is proving to be “for,” and where the next great impact of its further advance is likely to be found.