AMETEK Specialty Metal Products is a leading manufacturer of 3D printing metal powder for Metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) enabling the mass production of industrial components with precision.
Our cost-effective AM metal powders are engineered using premium stainless steel, nickel, and cobalt alloys. These powders are ideal for non-rotor-grade components made by Laser Powder Bed, Binder Jetting, and Cold Spray.
3D Printing Metal Powders
As a leader in 3D printing metal powder production for additive manufacturing, we provide a range of alloys and size distributions specifically tailored for different additive manufacturing processes and machines. The most common additive manufacturing powder materials produced include:
- Stainless steel 316L (including A240 grade)
- Stainless steel 304L
- Stainless steel 17-4PH®
In addition, we offer specialty austenitic and ferritic stainless steels, along with a selection of high-quality nickel and cobalt alloy powders designed specifically for 3D printing applications.
Metal Powder Sizes for 3D Printing
Our materials are offered in a variety of sizes suitable for various processes of 3D printing metal powder.
- Laser Powder Bed: -325M/+15µm (preferred), -270M/+20µm, additional custom sizes
- Binder Jet: -270M, -325M, -400M, and MIM (d90<22µm) sizes, with high Apparent Density / High Tap Density / High flow versions available
- Cold Spray: -325M, -400M, -500M, -25µm/+10µm, and -20µm/+5µm sizes
More Economical than VIGA Powders
Our water atomized powders for AM and 3D printing offer exceptional value for materials suitable for industrial applications. Our stainless, nickel, and cobalt alloy powders are re a cost-effective alternative to Vacuum Induction Gas Atomized (VIGA) powders, produced at a scale comparable to powder metallurgy materials—millions of pounds annually.
Leveraging over 50 years of powder engineering expertise, we combine high-volume, cost-efficient water atomization with advanced technology to create powders with round morphology, high flowability, and optimized Apparent and Tap Density. Additional benefits include:
- High-quality fine metal manufacturer: Reliable and consistent materials for industrial needs.
- Optimized water atomized powders: Tailored size distributions and morphologies for additive manufacturing.
- Exceptional value: Ideal for non-rotor-grade parts, providing cost savings without sacrificing performance.
Laser Powder Bed
Our Laser Powder Bed products are engineered to maximize flowability and Apparent Density. In water atomized materials, this means that the preferred size is -325M/+15µm powder as it offers the highest typical Hall Flow rates and packing densities.
|
17-4PH Powders |
316L Powders |
| Typical |
AD (g/cc) |
Hall Flow (s/ 50 g) |
AD (g/cc) |
Hall Flow (s/ 50 g) |
| -325M/ +15µm |
~3.9 |
~18 |
~4.0 |
~16 |
| -270M/ +20µm |
~3.7 |
~20 |
~3.7 |
~21 |
| -200M/ +5µm |
~4.0 |
~22 |
~4.2 |
~21 |
Our
17-4PH® and
316L powders have been printed on several different machines, producing dense parts at standard machine parameters. Yield strength, tensile strength, elongation, and reduction of area tested intermediate to cast and wrought values.
Binder Jet
Perhaps the most interesting AM application for water atomized powders is Binder Jet. The economics of Binder Jet are dictated heavily by powder cost due to the relatively low cost and high print speed of machines.
With high production capacities and low costs, Binder Jet and water atomized powder are a highly desirable combination.
Our Binder Jet materials achieve:
- Apparent Densities ~50% of fully dense
- Tap Densities ~60% of fully dense
- Hall Flows approaching 25s
Development partners printing our materials have achieved densities greater than 95% with standard sintering operations.
Cold Spray
Water Atomized powders have numerous advantages for cold Spray additive manufacturing. The single most important factor is that AMETEK SMP produces high quality, very fine powders in an extremely economic manner for cold spray metal deposition processes. This is due to the much lower overhead and manufacturing costs of water atomization vs. VIGA, which scale with the low yields of very fine and tight cold spray distributions.
Customers have sprayed ferritic steels, austenitic steels, and nickel. Any alloy from our portfolio can be produced in a suitable size distribution for cold spray 3d printing.
AD as a Function of Process
The graph shows the development of high density, high flow materials for Binder Jet
