Renishaw has partnered with Metalpine, an Austrian company specializing in high-quality metal powders, to develop additive manufacturing (AM) solutions for marine use. The collaboration focuses on creating copper-nickel alloy powders for AM. This effort supports a major European naval force, enabling them to produce replacement parts in-house using Renishaw’s RenAM 500Q Flex system.
Naval operations in saltwater environments face many challenges. Hydraulic components and other critical parts often suffer from rapid wear and corrosion. To address this, the naval force decided to manufacture replacement parts internally. They chose to use copper-nickel powder parts made with the RenAM 500Q Flex system.
Copper-nickel (CuNi) powders form a protective surface layer on parts. This layer helps prevent damage and corrosion. As a result, these parts are very durable in marine conditions where moisture and sea elements are constant. Engineers from Renishaw and Metalpine worked together to develop process settings for two copper-nickel alloys. The first alloy, CuNi 10, contains 10% nickel and 90% copper. The second, CuNi 30, contains 30% nickel and 70% copper.
Gerald Pöllmann, CEO of Metalpine, said: “We use a stable and highly efficient process to produce metal powders with high sphericity and no pores. This makes it easy for us to develop new powders. Working with Renishaw’s AM engineers was a great experience. They shared their results quickly during qualification, which helped us create powders that fit the application perfectly.”
The powders are used in the RenAM 500Q Flex system, an advanced metal AM machine designed for research, development, and pre-production. This system features an open-loop powder system. It allows quick and efficient powder changes, ideal for testing and optimizing materials, part designs, and process parameters. When equipped with the Reduced Build Volume (RBV) accessory, the system can run tests with as little as 0.25 litres of powder. This uses the same environment and optics as the full production system.
Alex Garcia, AM design and applications engineer at Renishaw, explained: “Copper-based metal powders are challenging to process in AM. CuNi 10 reflects laser energy strongly, making it harder to process. CuNi 30, with more nickel, is easier to handle. Using Renishaw’s advanced laser melting technology, we tested and refined the energy input settings. We adjusted power, scan speed, and hatch distance on the RenAM 500Q Flex to optimize processing for these materials.”
He added: “With these precise settings, we overcame the material challenges. This allowed us to produce high-quality, durable parts that perform well in harsh marine environments. The optimized process improves part strength and longevity and ensures consistent quality. Our naval customer can now reliably produce parts that withstand tough conditions.”
This partnership between Renishaw and Metalpine highlights the benefits of additive manufacturing for marine operations. It offers the possibility to reduce downtime by providing strong, high-performance parts made on-site.
