Powder Production
As the global leader in atomized metal powders, GKN Powder Metallurgy produces over 250,000 tons of high-quality metal powders annually. Our materials drive innovation across industries, from additive manufacturing to sintered and forged components, ensuring high performance, efficiency and sustainability.
Overview
Powder Production is a critical foundation for advanced metal manufacturing processes, providing the high-quality, consistent metal powders required for techniques such as Conventional Powder Metallurgy, Metal Injection Moulding, Forged Powder Metallurgy, and Additive Manufacturing. Our advanced atomization capabilities—Gas, Water, and EIGA (Electrode Induction Gas Atomization)—ensure powders meet stringent purity, composition, and particle distribution requirements. These controlled properties guarantee reliable, high-performance results across various demanding applications, including traditional sintered parts, specialized forged components, advanced materials like permanent magnets, battery components, and innovative additive solutions.
Powder Production Process Overview
Metal powders are produced through controlled atomization of molten metal, using gas or water techniques to create fine, uniform particles. These powders are then screened and classified for precise particle size distribution, ensuring suitability for specific applications. Conditioning processes enhance flowability, sinterability, and overall performance, while delivering consistent quality and reliability for high-performance manufacturing.
The powder production process begins with careful selection and preparation of the base materials.
- Material Selection: We source high-purity metals and alloys to ensure the final powder meets desired chemical and mechanical specifications.
- Alloy Blending: Raw materials are blended in precise proportions to achieve the target alloy composition, ensuring consistency in the powder properties.
- Pre-processing: The chosen materials may undergo melting, refining, or preliminary casting to prepare them for atomization or milling.
Benefit: Proper feedstock selection and preparation lay a strong foundation for producing powders with the required composition and properties, ensuring consistency and quality in later stages.
Key Benefits of Powder Production Technology
- Consistent Quality: Advanced production methods yield uniform powders with controlled particle sizes and compositions, essential for reliable manufacturing outcomes.
- Design Flexibility: Customizable powder characteristics enable optimization for specific processes, such as improved flowability for injection moulding or tailored properties for additive manufacturing.
- Material Efficiency: High-yield processes minimize waste, reducing costs and environmental impact while maintaining superior product quality.
- Scalability: State-of-the-art equipment and processes support high-volume production without compromising on quality, meeting the demands of large-scale manufacturing.
Applications of High-Quality Metal Powders
High-quality metal powders produced by GKN Powder Metallurgy serve as the foundation for a wide range of manufacturing processes and applications, including:
- Conventional Powder Metallurgy: Efficient manufacturing of precision-engineered, cost-effective structural components.
- Forged Powder Metallurgy: Enhances strength and performance in heavy-duty parts.
- Advanced Materials: High-performance powders tailored for electrification, energy storage, and magnet-based applications, including e-mobility and industrial energy solutions.
- Metal Injection Moulding (MIM): Produces complex, high-precision components.
- Additive Manufacturing: Enables the creation of intricate, lightweight, and customized designs.
- Other Applications: Powder coatings, thermal spray processes, and composite materials.
Driving Sustainability with Advanced Powder Solutions
Powder Metallurgy (PM) delivers significant environmental benefits by reducing material waste, energy usage, and emissions through efficient, near-net-shape manufacturing processes. By recycling and reusing up to 100% of metal powders, PM conserves resources and supports sustainable production. At GKN Powder Metallurgy, sustainability is embedded in our operations, enabling manufacturers to reduce environmental impact, improve material efficiency, and achieve cost-effective solutions across diverse applications.