Sandvik and BEAMIT join forces at Formnext 2022 – presenting their latest advancements in the industrialization of additive manufacturing

Sandvik and part-subsidiary BEAMIT Group – a world-leading AM service provider including 3T Additive Manufacturing – will visit Frankfurt, Germany, to showcase their expertise along the additive value chain. This year, materials authority Sandvik will present the latest news from their wide range of Osprey^® metal powders, tailored to various AM process technologies, alongside a variety of industrial customer cases that highlight the joint offering of Sandvik and BEAMIT Group.

Kristian Egeberg, President of Sandvik Additive Manufacturing, says:
“We are delighted to meet our customers and partners at Formnext again this year, and to display and discuss how we can further develop our on-going business relationships – and build new ones. We have strong expertise within AM materials, powders, and processes, and our team of experts are keen to provide their support. Together, we want to drive the shift toward more sustainable manufacturing.”

We thoroughly enjoyed our participation last year, and expect this years’ event to be every bit as fruitful.

Andrea Scanavini, Chief Commercial Officer at BEAMIT, agrees:
“At BEAMIT, we are very much looking forward to visiting Formnext alongside Sandvik again. We thoroughly enjoyed our participation last year, and expect this years’ event to be every bit as fruitful. The Sandvik-BEAMIT joint offering is a force to be reckoned with and we can’t wait to demonstrate it in full to our customers and the additive market.”

The widest range of Osprey^® metal powders: including copper and cobalt-free maraging steel

With more than 160 years of materials expertise and 45 years’ experience in powder atomization, Sandvik is a leading provider of gas-atomized metal powders for additive manufacturing, with the widest alloy range on the market. New at Formnext 2022 from the ever-evolving range of Osprey^® metal powders, is copper. Manufactured in-house, both pure and in a variety of alloyed variants, the material allows for greater control over factors such as thermal and electrical performance, size, shape, and weight of end components. The Osprey^® copper powder comes in fine as well as medium-sized particle sizes. It’s optimized for high thermal and electrical conductivity, which results in better heat transfer and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) matching.

Also featured in booth D21 is Sandvik’s well-renowned maraging steels, now also available cobalt-free – allowing for substantial benefits in sustainability as well as in shipping.

Luke Harris, Sales Director at Sandvik Additive Manufacturing, comments:
“Sandvik is a materials technology company by heritage and being able to continuously evolve our offering to make our materials even more sustainable, while benefitting our customers, is just fantastic. As part of our everyday operations, we tailor materials to meet customer-specific needs – and develop new alloys to cover up for deficiencies on the market.”

Being able to continuously evolve our offering to make our materials even more sustainable, while benefitting our customers, is just fantastic

Maraging steel is typically used in high-cycle environments such as tooling – where the materials need to withstand wear and tear, as well as extreme temperature changes.

Luke Harris continues:
“Cobalt-free maraging steel is excellent combined with additive manufacturing. The AM process inherently decreases cycle times which, with a material that offers high strength without losing ductility, will greatly benefit our customers.”

Additively manufactured super-duplex stainless steel

In 2021, Sandvik and BEAMIT announced themselves uniquely positioned in terms of producing additively manufactured components in super-duplex stainless steel, offering optimized performance for the most demanding marine environments while enabling minimal downtime and no capital tied up in parts. Outperforming several traditionally manufactured counterparts, Sandvik’s super-duplex components are 3D printed in the company’s flagship material Osprey^® 2507 – a strong, corrosion-resistant super-duplex metal powder, tailored for AM and manufactured in-house to the highest international standards.

On display at Formnext 2022 will be not only the “impeller reinvented”, that Sandvik printed in Osprey^® 2507 alongside energy giant Equinor and Norwegian Eureka Pumps, but also a larger size impeller created in collaboration with BEAMIT Group.

Daniel France, Business Development Director at BEAMIT, says:
“The super-duplex impeller was a great project to realize with our partners at Sandvik Additive Manufacturing. We set out to develop process parameters on new platforms, to meet the demand for bigger applications. The new impeller measures 380 mm in diameter – and to our customers in the offshore- and energy sectors the ability to combine larger sizes with the outstanding strength and corrosion resistance attained through additively manufactured Osprey^® 2507, is a massive step forward.”

Osprey^® titanium – optimized for additive manufacturing

Sandvik will also display their Osprey^® titanium powder which, being both durable and light, is a material frequently used across a variety of industries such as aerospace and medical. Sandvik’s titanium powders are manufactured in highly automated, state-of-the-art facilities, with quality management systems certified to, for instance, AS9100-D and ISO 13485:2016. Managing the full process chain in-house, from raw material through to metal powder and finished component, allows for Sandvik to offer unique levels of traceability – which is key in many of the most demanding industries. Processing the Osprey^® titanium in their own additive manufacturing workshop, Sandvik will be displaying skull implants, acetabular cups, and suppressors in titanium at Formnext 2022.

3D printed cemented carbides by Sandvik

Apart from metal powders, Sandvik will also showcase one of the newer additions to their additive offering: 3D-printed cemented carbides. Stating “freedom of design has never been harder”, the materials giant has been working with cemented carbide since 1932. Today, Sandvik is a world leader in hard materials, providing for instance metal cutting- and mining tools such as turning inserts, end-mills, and drill bits – and are now also able to additively manufacture one of their very most long-standing flagship materials into virtually any shape, through a unique and patented process.

Anders Ohlsson, Product Manager at Sandvik Additive Manufacturing, says:
“The most critical factor in our process is working with powders that have the just-right properties. We have developed both a cemented carbide powder and a proprietary process that are truly unique. Our powders are optimized to print components that look great, work well, and are fit for use in actual applications, demanding environments, and serial production.”

Additively manufactured cemented carbide is a potential gamechanger across several industries – since wear is a common challenge in basically any segment.

Anders Ohlsson continues:
“By shifting to 3D-printed cemented carbide, you’re not only enjoying the benefits of design freedom, but also the impact of increasing the lifetime of your components by up to 20 times, compared to those manufactured with any other steel or alloy.”

A selection of cemented carbide impellers, wire-drawing nibs, and nozzles – developed in cooperation with Varel – will be on display in Frankfurt.

The Sandvik-BEAMIT booth D21 will be filled with industrial customer cases covering a wide range of materials and additive processes, as well as the leading metal powder and AM experts of Sandvik and the BEAMIT Group – ready to discuss customers’ specific needs and challenges. For further information about Sandvik’s presence at Formnext 2022, please visit our Formnext website.