Frankfurt, Germany/ Saint-Eustache, Canada – AP&C – a GE Additive company – has announced that it will begin production of aluminum alloy F357 powder in Q1 2019 with customer deliveries expected from April 2019.
Aluminum alloy F357 powder will be produced using AP&C’s proprietary Advanced Plasma Atomization (APA™) at its recently expanded facility in Saint-Eustache, Canada. This new, automated plant offers a full production capacity of 1,000 tons.
Aluminum shares similar characteristics with titanium, and aluminum alloy F357 powder has the same quality signature as APATM titanium powders - good processability, high flowability, high packing, low porosity and high purity - which are all required by the additive manufacturing industry to enhance performance and reliability of the aluminum printing process.
This new powder maps well with AP&C’s existing product range and experience working with reactive and low density metals.
“It’s great to add aluminum F357 to our portfolio. Our customers have been asking us to provide aluminum solutions to address the challenges they currently experience. We are confident we’ve developed a solution that solves these challenges,” said Alain Dupont, President & CEO, AP&C. “The modular cell-based structure of our new plant in Saint-Eustache allows us to respond quickly to the additive industry’s demands as it rapidly evolves,” he added.
Aluminum F357 alloy is increasingly in demand from customers particularly from the aerospace and automotive sectors. It is known to have good weldability with high strength and toughness offering a good corrosion resistance and heat conductivity.
