6K Additive and Freemelt Establish Strategic Partnership to Develop and Commercialize Refractory Metal Powder for the Freemelt 3D Printer Platform

Partnership enables new material options for advanced customers for aerospace, hypersonic and medical applications that require high-performing material properties

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Nov 15, 2021, 06:34 ET

BURGETTSTOWN Pa. and MÖLNDAL, Sweden, Nov. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- 6K Additive a division of 6K, the leader in the production of sustainable advanced materials for additive manufacturing and Freemelt a high-tech growth company whose open-source 3D printing platform creates new conditions for rapid growth in 3D printing, today jointly announced a strategic partnership to develop and bring to market new materials for their Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion (E-PBF) printer platform that enables advanced additive manufacturing applications. Cutting edge applications for hypersonics, as an example, require performance refractory materials such as tungsten to withstand the extreme temperatures, forces due to speed, shifting directions and altitude dynamics. 6K Additive has the production expertise and scale to produce refractory performance powders and the Freemelt additive manufacturing printers provide a printing platform to deliver on customers stringent requirements for these materials.

"Since the commercial launch of refractory metal powder we've seen a ton of interest in refractories specifically tungsten," said Frank Roberts, president of 6K Additive. "Freemelt is an organization that prides itself on working with the market for parameter development on their platform to help customers push the capabilities of 3D printing for applications that require high-performance parts and materials like tungsten."

Dr. Ulric Ljungblad, CEO of Freemelt added, "The market is consistently asking us for performance materials and partnering with 6K Additive gives us and our customers a material supplier that not only delivers high-quality metal powder but is quickly commercializing the sought-after performance materials like tungsten and other refractory metals. The new partnership helps us and them push the limits of what's possible with 3D printing."

In 2020 6K Additive completed the construction of a state-of-the-art, 45,000 sq/ft powder production facility in Burgettstown, PA. The facility has two UniMelt microwave plasma systems commissioned with two additional systems scheduled to be completed by years end. The company will also begin construction to expand the powder manufacturing building to add space for six additional systems. Installation of the additional systems will begin in Q1 of 2022.

Freemelt continues to advance the Freemelt One platform and has recently announced global expansion plans with German market subsidiary and new customers such as the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy. Freemelt will be at the upcoming Formnext show in Frankfurt, Germany Hall 12.0 in booth 138. 6K Additive's tungsten powder and Freemelt printed parts as well as a Freemelt ONE system will be on display during the show in the Freemelt stand.

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About 6K

6K represents 6000 degrees, setting 6K technology apart from all others. It is the temperature of operation of UniMelt^® (5778K to be exact), the world's only microwave production scale plasma, and is also the temperature of the surface of the sun.

6K uses proprietary advanced plasma processing and industrial systems to create materials that are enabling the next-generation of commercial and consumer products. The company's continuous UniMelt process allows for complete and unprecedented control of the entire materials engineering process, to produce materials at exact specifications.

The 6K Additive division is an ISO9001 facility, reclaims and processes over a million pounds of Ti-64 per year, and has recently built and commissioned a state-of-the-art 48,000 square foot production facility for additive manufacturing powders.

To learn more about 6K, please visit www.6Kinc.com

About Freemelt

Freemelt is a high-tech growth company whose pioneering solution creates new conditions for rapid growth in 3D printing, also called additive manufacturing. The company's protected technology, which is already installed at large companies and universities, takes 3D printing to a new level and provides new conditions for printing products in a cost-effective way and at a consistent and high quality. By choosing an open-source solution, the conditions are created for strong growth that enables Freemelt to develop products for manufacturing markets.

To learn more about Freemelt, please visit www.freemelt.com

SOURCE 6K