US Government’s DLA Awards 6K a near $1M Phase II Program to Establish a Domestic Capability to Recover and Convert Critical Metals from Defense Scrap into Premium Additive Manufacturing Powder
North Andover, MA. and Burgettstown PA, September 20, 2020 – 6K and 6K Additive, the world’s leading developer of microwave plasma technology for the production of advanced materials, today announced it has been awarded a Phase ll SBIR program from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), following the strong success of its Phase I. The Phase II program supports the development and commercialization of a domestic and commercially scalable supply chain for strategic high-performance metal powders from scrap sources. Utilizing 6K’s proprietary UniMelt® microwave plasma platform the program will demonstrate 6K’s capability to source, process, and reclaim nickel superalloy scrap components, shop scrap, and used powders for conversion into aerospace-grade powders. The new powders will be used to additively manufacture real-world, discrete printed parts which will demonstrate functionality in testbeds or systems.
Dr. Aaron Bent, CEO of 6K, commented, “As a company, we are certainly pleased with the award, but more importantly, we’re proud as an organization to help our country create and control a domestic supply for alloys such as nickel used for emerging production methods like additive manufacturing. The recent COVID 19 pandemic highlights the importance of controlling the supply chain and the renewed need for domestic production to avoid interruption of critical supplies.”
6K’s UniMelt® plasma production system is uniquely capable of converting high-value metal scrap of numerous forms into high-performance metal powders for additive manufacturing, metal injection molding and other powder metallurgy production techniques. And by doing so, provide for the first time, access to a vast domestic supply of strategically important metals and alloys such as nickel and titanium from machine shops, boneyards, and sources of other used materials which are critical to the mission of the modern warfighter. The patented 6K process cleans, prepares, and spheroidizes scrap alloys into high-quality powders with performance superior to atomization technologies. This process will provide the US military with a secure, traceable domestic supply of critical materials while eliminating unexpected performance anomalies due to questionable sourcing from foreign supply.
6K has worked with several members of congress gaining support for the companies efforts in utilizing defense scrap material as feedstock for the UniMelt process in support of reducing the dependence on foreign supply. Congressman Guy Reschenthaler commented on 6K’s efforts in this area, “Southwestern Pennsylvania’s job creators, innovators, and hardworking employees are critical to our national defense and efforts to provide vital resources to our warfighters,” said Pennsylvania Congressman Guy Reschenthaler. “I was proud to secure funding to reduce dependence on foreign titanium and utilize American ingenuity to protect our national security.”
6K has recently commissioned its new 40,000 square foot state-of-the-art metal powder production facility and will begin shipping traditional powder products in the fall of 2020.
Superalloys are used in critical propulsion and heat mitigation components in the hottest, most corrosive, most demanding components in aircraft and rocket engines, gas turbines, oil and gas equipment, and heat exchangers. The US DoD will benefit in several ways through the program:
1. Reducing the risk of dependence on foreign supply.
As there is constrained domestic availability of strategic metals such as superalloys, utilizing materials from the nation’s boneyards and machine shops - end of life components, shop scrap, or used powders - for conversion into high-quality materials provides the US military with a secure domestic supply of critical metals.
2. A closed-loop enhances security.
Of crucial concern is the quality and consistency of foreign-sourced materials. Recycling previously qualified DoD parts, shop scrap and used powders creates a closed-loop with material’ quality being known and traceable. Unexpected performance anomalies due to questionable sourcing can be prevented.
3. Advanced systems faster to the field.
High quality recycled materials will help the DoD to develop and adopt advanced Additive Manufacturing, Metal Injection Molding, and Powder Forging processes more quickly creating parts with totally novel functionality, reducing engineering cycles and accelerating “make-to-fly” cycles. This translates to enhanced lethality with reduced costs.
4. Managing costs while maximizing quality
Using already certified scrap as raw material dramatically reduces the material cost of goods for manufactured parts and ensures they meet the desired specification. Powders from scrap will leverage DoD investments by reducing the cost of end-system part production with compelling ROI.
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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 40,000 square foot production facility for additive manufacturing powders.
To learn more about 6K, please visit www.6Kinc.com