Continuum Powders Releases Two New Copper-Nickel 3D Printing Powders

The significance of critical minerals to global geopolitics is showing no sign of slowdown as we approach the new year; if anything, it looks like 2025 was just the very beginning of a long-term process whereby international critical mineral supply chains will be completely transformed. This is welcome news for the additive manufacturing (AM) industry.

Similarly, the AM industry’s progress in critical minerals should be welcome news for global industry. Above all, the progress that certain AM companies are making in catalyzing a critical minerals circular economy represents a pivotal opportunity across a broad range of applications.

Continuum Powders, based in Houston, is one of those companies, and it just released two new copper-nickel alloys to its OptiPowder line of recycled metal feedstock. Optimized for multiple different AM processes, Continuum produces the new materials — C715 and C964 — out of “reclaimed aerospace-grade material,” a signature of the company’s proprietary Greyhound Metal-to-Powder (M2P) process.

The demand from AM users for copper-nickel alloys has grown consistently over the last few years, as the materials are uniquely resistant to corrosion, an advantage prioritized by the indispensable maritime market segment. Continuum notes that the launch of the two new powders is “an early step” in the company’s plan to steadily diversify its metal powders offerings.

In a press release about Continuum Powders’ launch of two new copper-nickel powders, the company’s CEO, Rob Higby, said, “Continuum’s primary mission is to provide customers with reliable, high-performance powders. With the addition of C715 and C964, engineers working in marine, energy, and industrial sectors now have access to copper-nickel powders that combine exceptional corrosion resistance with the consistency required for production-grade [AM].”

Given that so many of the users most responsible for expanding metal AM adoption are in sectors with access to large quantities of metal scrap, a growth in the incorporation of recycling into metal AM operations seems like an essential feature of the industry’s future. Continuum has been well ahead of this curve for some time already, releasing a case study in 2024 in which the company partnered with local contract manufacturer Knust-Godwin to turn oil & gas parts nearing the end of their life-cycle into new AM feedstock.

Continuum was also the topic of an independent life cycle assessment (LCA) released earlier this year by Oregon State University (OSU), which demonstrated that the company’s production process reduces the carbon footprint of the nickel powder supply chain by 99.7% when compared to conventional, mining-based processes. Thus, Continuum’s process has equal appeal from the standpoints of both sustainability and resilience, giving customers the ability to achieve both objectives in circumstances typically demanding they pick one or the other.

The company’s offering of copper-nickel alloys now gives Continuum the opportunity to test its credentials as a dual-use enabler: in addition to corrosion resistance, high levels of thermal and electrical conductivity are among the other noteworthy features of copper-nickel alloys. In that sense, they could be just as valuable to suppliers of, say, data center hardware, as they are to the Maritime Industrial Base (MIB).

That angle also makes Continuum’s location in Houston even more attractive from a strategic perspective: Texas is just as much a hotbed of data centers as it is a hub for shipbuilding. As the company continues to make further additions to its powder lineup, it will be worth paying attention to how it leverages its geographic footprint.

Images courtesy of Continuum