Demand for consumer electronics and semiconductors has come under pressure from oversupply, but the use of titanium powders in electronic devices and other applications is rising.
Consumption of titanium powders in electronics production is growing rapidly and Canadian supplier Tekna expects it to become a key market for the company.
Metal injection moulding in the consumer electronics industry allows manufacturers to create smaller and more intricate components that can increase the performance and functionality of electronic devices. The process involves blending fine metal powders with polymer binder material to create a feedstock that is injected into a mould and sintered into the required shape. This gives manufacturers the ability to create complex shapes with high precision and costs less than traditional manufacturing methods such as machining or casting.
This week Tekna received a C$1.7mn order from an unnamed customer in Asia for its Ti6Al4V titanium powder. It has completed the first delivery under the agreement and will make subsequent deliveries until the end of the year. The customer will use the powder in metal injection moulding to manufacture sub-components for personal electronic devices on a large scale and will supply them to companies with global reach, Tekna said.
Osaka Titanium Technologies also reported strong demand for high-purity spherical titanium alloy powder. The company expects its net sales of high-performance materials to rise to ¥4bn ($28.86mn) in the financial year ending in March 2024, up by 5.2pc year on year.
Osaka Titanium expects to maintain a high operating rate to respond to the demand, while managing rising input costs. The company said it will negotiate with its customers to raise prices to account for high raw material and fuel costs, with titanium ore and energy prices having risen sharply.
The use of titanium powders is also growing in the medical sector, where the ability to produce precision parts is driving new applications.
Earlier this month, US-based 6K Additive entered an agreement with Australia-based Surgical Metal Recycling to recycle titanium-based medical implants to produce premium metal powders.
The companies will reprocess used and out-of-spec implants, swarf and used metal additive manufacturing powder from metal scrap supplier SMR through 6K Additive's UniMelt microwave plasma platform, initially in the US and later moving to Europe. The powders can then be used to create new implants through additive manufacturing.
"There is a growing population that require medical titanium implants," 6K Additive president Frank Roberts said. "This agreement creates a path to recycle these parts and enable new implant production with sustainably sourced feedstock." The collaboration will initially focus on Ti6Al4V alloy powder and will expand to incorporate cobalt chrome.
The UniMelt process can remove oxygen from the titanium powder and increase the material grade. The process also allows for greater than 90pc yield of the desired particle size distribution compared with other plasma or gas atomisation processes, which typically yield 25-35pc, further decreasing costs and environmental impact, 6K Additive said.
US-based IperionX is betting big on demand for titanium powders in the coming years, in applications ranging from automotive, consumer electronics, green hydrogen electrolysers, hydrogen fuel cells and luxury goods, to aerospace and defence. The company expects the global metal additive manufacturing market to exceed $7bn by 2030, from around $500mn in 2021.
The company has operated its Industrial Pilot Facility (IPF) in Salt Lake City, Utah, since January 2022. It said last month that it is planning to expand the production capacity of its 125 t/yr Titanium Demonstration Facility (TDF) in Virginia to 1,125 t/yr in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The expanded plant would give IperionX the largest recycled titanium metal powder production capacity in the world, and the only facility using 100pc titanium metal scrap as a feedstock, the company said.
The TDF is scheduled to start commissioning in the fourth quarter of 2023 and start to produce titanium powder in the first quarter of 2024, targeting the run-rate of 125 t/yr by the third quarter of 2024. The development of the facility is subject to a final investment decision expected in the third quarter of this year.
The TDF is projected to initially produce around 15 t/yr of spherical titanium metal powder and around 110 t/yr of angular titanium metal powder. IperionX then plans to install additional equipment at the facility to allow for the operational flexibility to produce 125 t/yr of either 100pc angular titanium metal powder or 100pc spherical titanium metal powder depending on demand.
IperionX expects its spherical titanium powder production to carry a cash cost of $72/kg. The plan assumes a spherical titanium metal powder price of around $130/kg, with current market pricing around $200/kg and a projection of $215/kg by 2026. The company is pricing in discounts to capture market share and to take into account the impact of its increased supply on the market. The $70mn capacity expansion would require long lead time items to be ordered in the third quarter of 2024.
