NanoSteel eyes expansion of 3-D market for metal

Add NanoSteel Co. Inc. to the list of firms excited about the potential of 3-D printing.
This past summer, the Providence-based metal engineering company developed a new powder alloy for building super-hard, wear-resistant parts through additive manufacturing.
In other words, soon customers should be able to grow metal pieces in their 3-D printers out of NanoSteel.
“What is new here is you don’t need any tool and die and you are not restricted in geometry,” said Harald Lemke, vice president and general manager for engineered powders at NanoSteel about the breakthrough. “Also you don’t have lead times and all the normal benefits of additive manufacturing are also applying here.”
Since it first emerged more than 30 years ago as rapid prototyping, 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, has been centered on plastics, a forgiving, easily liquefied and manipulated material.
Metals, on the other hand, have remained a frontier for 3-D printing, which builds objects layer by layer instead of cutting away from a larger block.
As technology has improved, 3-D printers have emerged that can make metal parts that used to be milled with only traditional machine tools, but those printers remain expensive.
And some of the advanced metal applications, such as the high-hardness, super strength and wear resistance that NanoSteel specializes in, have remained outside the capacity of additive manufacturers.
Lemke joined NanoSteel in the winter of 2013 and had been working on an additive-manufacturing-capable powder for much of that time before making a breakthrough in August.
To print metal, additive manufacturing machines sinter, or combine, powdered metal particles with a laser, which also layers the material over a 3-D model.
The challenge for creating NanoSteel’s super-hard, wear-resistant metal microstructure through a printer is the stress the material is put under, post lasering, when cooled.
Lemke described the dynamic as similar to the way a glass shatters when it is heated and then dropped in cold water.
One way to get around this is using softer, more ductile materials in the metal, or using a secondary treatment process after production. But that either produces a less-durable part or takes extra time and resources.
It was when the test piece made from the newly developed powder cooled without showing any cracking that Lemke knew he had a viable product that could be produced in one step without any time-consuming, secondary treatment. So what will the new 3-D printing powder do and who will buy it?
The primary advantages of additive manufacturing are that it is capable of producing more complex pieces than traditional machining and those pieces can be produced on demand without having to make special tools or molds first.
Lemke said this should apply to existing NanoSteel markets such as mining, oil drilling, fracking and cement making, all activities that involve working in and with highly abrasive materials.
In addition to including wear-resistant metal in equipment, customers could also use 3-D printing to create replacement parts in the field and in remote locations where access to resupply is limited.
And in the long-term, Lemke said the new powder could be used in high-strength cutting tools, replacing materials such as tungsten carbide or ceramic metal composites, a major market now dominated by foreign companies.
“It was a shock to see how far we can push the envelope and I was pleased we could validate the functionality of this material,” Lemke said.
Founded in 2002, NanoSteel now employs 33 people – 14 in Rhode Island, 15 in an Idaho office and four in Detroit.
Founded in 2002, NanoSteel has grown to 28 employees in Rhode Island and has offices in Detroit and Idaho.
With its focus on engineering challenges, NanoSteel doesn’t sell its technology directly, but generally licenses it through partners. In July, the company granted an exclusive license for its metal coatings to Lincoln Electric.
Lemke said NanoSteel is working with a “collaboration partner,” which he could not name, to figure out how to best bring the additive-manufacturing powder product to market.
Although this past summer’s trials represented a proof of concept, Nanosteel will continue to test and refine the technology, specifically making sure that all of the edges and overhangs in complex parts cool and react in the same way. It will also be applying the same technology to different alloys.
Also to be determined is exactly what kind of 3-D printers the NanoSteel powders will work in. Lemke said they are likely to not be entry-level machines, but reasonably accessible. •