Sintavia and TNSC Partner to Optimize Gas Flow for Additive Manufacturing

February 5, 2018 by Clare Scott 3D Printing Business Metal 3D Printing

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Last month, Sintavia became the first company to be approved to 3D print flight-worthy production parts for Honeywell Aerospace – quite an honor for the young company, which counts aerospace as one of its industries of specialization. Aerospace is far from being the only sector that the additive manufacturing company works in, though – other areas of focus include automotive, ground power generation, and oil and gas. This week, Sintavia has gas on its mind as it forms a new partnership with Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation (TNSC), a global provider of industrial gases and related welding solutions.

TNSC turns a century old this year, and provides industrial gas solutions for a variety of industries including steel, chemical, electronics, automobile, construction, shipbuilding, medical and food. Headquartered in Japan, TNSC has a presence on several continents and supplies gases including oxygen, nitron, argon and others, as well as related equipment and plants.

The partnership between Sintavia and TNSC will develop and promote metal additive manufacturing across multiple industries, and involves a technical collaboration to develop and commercialize gas flow processes that optimize the technology’s benefits. The two will work together on an aspect of additive manufacturing that many don’t often think about.

“Gas flow dynamics are the single most important—and single most overlooked—aspect of successful quality AM builds. In TNSC, we are partnering with a true leader in industrial gas flow optimization. We look forward to jointly developing and marketing gas flow solutions that will benefit our mutual customers and result in superior builds,” said Brian R. Neff, Chairman and CEO of Sintavia.

[Image: Sintavia]

Optimizing industrial gas for additive manufacturing involves perfecting the chemistry, mix and flow within the build chamber of each manufacturing run. Poorly flowed or poorly mixed gas can result in flawed parts with poor mechanical properties, porosity, or a lack of fusion. TNSC’s gas expertise will be a valuable part of the partnership, working to perfect gas flow for additive manufacturing. The partnership is expected to work with existing customers to promote optimized gas flow strategies that enable successful end use parts.

“TNSC has for many years developed proprietary solutions for industrial welding applications. We are excited to apply these many years of gas quality control and gas flow experience to the exciting and growing world of additive manufacturing,” said Tadaharu (Ted) Watanabe, TNSC’s General Manager of Global Business Development. “Sintavia is at the forefront of this technology, and is a quality partner for us to do so. This partnership is also an extension of our overall strategy in the additive manufacturing market by investing and partnering with market leading Laser Metal Deposition tool suppliers and metal powder suppliers.”

The terms of the partnership were not disclosed, but the deal involves co-investment in Sintavia by TNSC.

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