Additive Manufacturing
Driving global innovation in Additive Manufacturing
Our powders are the foundation for efficient and effective part production. Our high-performance materials are pushing the boundaries of innovation and driving the additive manufacturing revolution. Explore the forefront of modern manufacturing with a diverse range of materials designed to revolutionize the way we create and build. Our comprehensive portfolio opens the door to unprecedented design freedom, intricate geometries, and unparalleled productivity. With custom development to support your specific needs and the ability to scale as your production capacities grow, our materials will redefine the possibilities of manufacturing.
Copper
Copper powder, widely produced at Kymera, has significant benefits for additive manufacturing applications providing superior conductivity, ductility and a wide range of alloys to tailor to specific properties.
Kymera is actively producing the following copper powders, with additional development ongoing.
Commercially Pure (CP) Copper
- A somewhat soft alloy, CP copper has the highest thermal and electrical conductivity, as well as ductility. The purity is important to maintaining properties (99.8% Cu content).
- CP copper is commonly used in binder jetting, laser sintering and cold spray applications.
C18000: CuNiSi
- C18000 is a heat treatable, precipitation hardened alloy with much higher strength and hardness than pure copper. This alloy maintains moderate conductivity and is used in binder jetting and laser sintering applications.
C18150: CuZrCr
- C18150 is also a heat treatable, precipitation hardened alloy with higher strength and hardness than pure copper, while maintaining excellent conductivity.
GRCop 42: CuCrNb
- GRCop 42 is a high strength, high conductivity alloy developed by NASA for high heat flux applications like liquid rocket engine combustors.
Cupronickel: Cu(10-30)Ni
- Cu-Ni alloys are highly resistant to saltwater corrosion and are commonly used in marine and chemical processing applications.
Custom Copper Alloys
- With production capability ranging from 5 pounds to 5 tons, Kymera is equipped to support your development needs.
Aluminum
Aluminum alloy powders are free flowing and atomized using proprietary atomizing technologies, classified into particle size distributions tailored to customer specifications. Aluminum powders are in high demand for additive manufacturing applications as they are lightweight, provide good strength properties and are more cost effective than titanium. Kymera produces a significant amount of standard and customer grades of aluminum powder for use in various applications.
AlSi10Mg
- AlSi10Mg is a common alloy widely used for laser sintering production methods.
AlSi7Mg
- AlSi7Mg is a widespread, heat-treatable aluminum alloy that can be used for manufacturing lightweight functional components, typically seen in the automotive and aerospace sectors.
AlSi3Mg2 (Custalloy)
- Custalloy was developed in partnership with a consortium of leading European firms to provide a high-performance aluminum alloy specifically designed for laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing to serve the needs of serial part production. This alloy is heat-treatable to offer high strength more than 3X common alloys or exceptional ductility of more than 20%.
AlSi9Cu3
- With additions of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn, this alloy is heat treatable to achieve 50% higher strengths than common AM aluminum alloys with higher temperature resistance.
Al6061
- 6061 is a sinterable grade available for binder jet. This heat treatable alloy is widely used in wrought form and can achieve the same properties with binder jet applications.
Custom Aluminum Alloys
- Kymera International leads the industry, offering the broadest range of alloying flexibility of any aluminum powder producer. With production ranging from 5 pounds to 5 tons, we are your preferred partner for new product development.
Titanium
Titanium powders are in highest demand for lightweight applications requiring high strength properties. Through collaborations with industry and university partners, Kymera has undergone a significant amount of development of non-spherical titanium powders for laser additive manufacturing. Melt-free titanium powders are suitable for laser additive and designed to lower overall material costs per part. Our powders are produced using a high volume process and are qualified for many demanding applications, including orthopedic implants.
Commercially Pure (CP) Titanium
We supply CP Ti powder for use in additive manufacturing applications. The hydride / de-hydride (HDH) process forms highly pure Ti with an angular shape which maintains powder flow.
Titanium powders are lightweight, strong and corrosion resistant and used in a wide range of today’s most demanding markets. Our titanium powders are produced via a proprietary hydride / de-hydride (HDH) process.
Refractory Metals
Additively manufactured parts made from refractory metals can withstand high heat applications. Not only are these metals extremely resistant to heat and corrosion, they also retain their structural integrity even at elevated temperatures. These powders are ideal in demanding aerospace and industrial applications. Refractory metals are quite difficult to process via traditional fabrication methods, thus additive manufacturing methods are proving to be extremely beneficial for such high-heat bearing applications. Using spherical refractory metal powders from Kymera International will help industry overcome historical manufacturing limitations by increasing design flexibility, providing new material options, providing more cost effective solutions and decreasing time to market.
Molybdenum
- Molybdenum is the sixth-highest melting point element. Kymera International offers spherical, high-purity powder.
Rhenium
- Rhenium has the third-highest melting point of any element and is used in extreme temperature applications and as a catalyst. Spherical rhenium powder from Kymera International has ultra-low impurity levels.
Spherical Tungsten Powder
- Tungsten has the highest melting point of all known elements. Because it is difficult to process tungsten by conventional methods, additive manufacturing using highly spherical powder with low impurities from Kymera International offers unprecedented design freedom.
TZM (MoTiZr)
- TZM is a molybdenum alloy containing titanium and zirconium which has higher strength and creep resistance than pure molybdenum and resists high-temperature embrittlement.
C103 (NbHfTi)
- C103 is a niobium alloy with additions of hafnium and titanium with extreme temperature resistance for use in aerospace and harsh environments.
Stainless Steel
Kymera is focused on partnering for the development and commercialization of stainless steel powders for additive manufacturing. These powders are produced by proprietary methods to achieve the highest performance and most cost competitive materials on the market.
304L
- 304L is the most commonly produced stainless steel and is used in food preparation, consumer goods, automotive and architectural applications. It is however, susceptible to corrosion attack in marine environments, where 316L becomes the favored alloy.
316L
- After 304L, 316L is the second most commonly produced stainless steel. With very high resistance to chemical attack, 316L is used in marine environments, chemical processing, food preparation, and medical devices.
17-4PH
- Containing Ni and Cu additions, 17-4 is a precipitation hardened stainless steel, with higher strength, corrosion resistant, and thermal stability compared to 304L. For this reason, it is used in more demanding applications.
Specialized processes tailored to your needs
Driven by the desire to advance the additive manufacturing landscape and supported by deep technical expertise, spanning decades of experience, Kymera is actively developing new additive manufacturing materials. Our powders have been utilized in powder bed fusion, laser metal deposition and cold spray applications for years, and now we are taking that expertise and applying the technology to metal binder jetting.
Our powders are atomized using proprietary atomizing technologies and classified into particle size distributions tailored to customer specifications. We have extensive sintering knowledge and vast R&D capabilities supporting a wide range of technologies and processes. Our global team is interested in learning more about your application!
Metal Binder Jetting
Binder jet additive manufacturing provides a unique advantage to the AM market over alternative print methods such as selective laser melting (SLM) or laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) for reactive metals. Because of the reactive behavior of aluminum, its alloys were traditionally limited to casting grades for the slower SLM-based processes. Kymera is now able to process dedicated aluminum alloys quickly by binder jetting.
Binder jet printing involves spreading a layer of powder and applying droplets of binder to form a consistent green part. By filling the entire volume of the print box with highly engineered metal powder, printing without supports is realized. This offers more design freedom to the user, allows more parts to be packed into a build and requires no post-process to remove supports. These benefits, coupled with production speeds much faster than laser powder bed fusion, make binder jetting more practical to scale to high volume production. In addition, any powder that has not been bound with the binder solution is able to be recycled for use again in future prints, leading to more efficient use of material, reducing additional energy and carbon emissions costs.
Kymera offers many aluminum, copper, titanium and stainless steel alloys for binder jet. Common particle sizes include <15, <28, <36, <45, <63 and <75 micrometers.
Powder Bed Fusion
Kymera has extensive experience developing and producing powders for use in powder bed fusion applications. Powder bed fusion technology offers several variants designated by the heat source used and type of material joined. The predominant types are laser beam and electron beam.
Selective laser sintering (SLS) is a process which typically sinters powdered polymer materials. Selective laser melting (SLM) is similar to SLS, however the laser fully melts the powder rather than sintering it. This process is more commonly applied to metal powders including Kymera’s aluminum alloys, titanium and titanium alloys, copper and stainless steel. Electron beam melting (EBM) is comparable to SLM, replacing the laser with an electron gun, requiring a vacuum chamber instead of an inert atmosphere.
Powder bed fusion applications provide full customization, reduced material waste and cost, improved development times, rapid prototyping and low volume production and efficient recycling of un-melted powder.
Kymera offers many aluminum, copper, titanium, stainless steel and refractory metals and alloys for powder bed fusion. Common particle sizes include 15-45, 20-63, 25-75 and 45-106 micrometers.
Directed Energy Deposition
Kymera’s additive manufacturing materials can be found in numerous directed energy deposition (DED) applications. Using a focused energy source, such as an electron beam, laser or plasma arc, DED melts a material which is simultaneously deposited by a nozzle. The energy is directed toward a plate or substrate material where it impacts a wire or powder feedstock, melting and leaving the deposited material attached to the substrate. DED has a higher deposition rate than other AM processes and generally is able to produce larger parts that wouldn’t fit within a powder bed system.
Kymera offers many aluminum, copper, titanium, stainless steel and refractory metals and alloys for DED. Common particle sizes include 15-45, 20-63, 25-75 and 45-106 micrometers.
Cold Spray
Cold spray additive manufacturing enables the fabrication of freestanding parts or the building of features on existing components. During the cold spray process, fine powder particles, such as those produced by Kymera, are accelerated in a high-velocity compressed gas stream. Upon impacting the substrate or backing plate, the particles deform and bond together creating a layer. As the nozzle moves, a part is formed layer-by-layer. The cold spray process can be advantageous due to its high deposition rates, uncontrolled environment, ability to combine dissimilar materials, possibility of producing much larger scale parts and ability to collect and reuse spare particles.
Kymera offers many aluminum, copper, titanium and stainless steel alloys for cold spray. Common particle sizes include 15-45, 20-63, 25-75 and 45-106 micrometers.
Performance, innovation, and collaboration are the heart of what we do
Kymera’s goal is to not only understand our customers’ needs and work with you to solve your material challenges, but ultimately to forecast industry trends and bring the latest innovations to market.
Due to our specialized powder morphology, chemistry and particle sizes, we are able to control powder attributes and provide customers with the flexibility you need for custom development. In addition, proprietary atomizing technologies and extensive sintering knowledge enable better yields and shorter lead times, supporting scalable operations.
Our custom development services are enabled through decades of experience producing high quality materials and our specialized R&D atomizers. We support progressive scalability through continuous process development and the ability to take solutions from custom samples to full industrialization.
From custom development to industrial production requirements, Kymera is the ideal partner in additive manufacturing.
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