Powder Consolidation

Our capabilities support the key technical challenge of innovating processes to efficiently fabricate and test material libraries, whilst simultaneously capturing sufficient information which can be shared with manufacturers to enable rapid deployment to occur.

Additive Manufacturing technologies developed through Royce at the University of Sheffield hold the potential to displace existing technologies with reduced material waste and increased part complexity.

Melt Spinner casts a thin ribbon of rapidly quenched amorphous material in 100g batches, and is suitable for Al, Fe, Ni, and Cu alloys.

In powder metallurgy, HIP allows us to compress a volume of metal powder at such high temperatures and pressures, that through a combination of deformation, creep, and diffusion, you actually create a product with an homogenous annealed microstructure (compact solid) with minimal or no impurities in the materials. Meanwhile our research CIP is used to shape form powders into a green body, prior to sintering. This model allows the pressing of various shapes, including discs, bars, and tubes, and is therefore a near-net-shape process.

Field Assisted Sintering Technology/Spark Plasma Sintering (FAST/SPS) uses a DC electric current to directly heat the mould and/or sample through Joule heating. This direct heating allows high heating rates and low processing cycle times to be achieved. Lower temperatures and mould pressures are also typical compared to conventional hot pressing and sintering techniques.

FAST/SPS offers new possibilities to manufacture numerous materials with potentially extraordinary characteristics.

Capabilities:
Additive Manufacturing (Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Directed Energy Deposition, Binder System)
Isostatic Pressing (Hot and Cold)
Field Assisted Sintering Technology/Spark Plasma Sintering
Conform Extrusion