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Praxair and Velo3D to collaborate on metal additive-manufacturing technologies

| By Mary Bailey

Velo3D (Campbell, Calif.; www.velo3d.com) announced a partnership with Praxair Surface Technologies, Inc. (PST), a leading producer of premium specialty alloy-based solutions for the aerospace industry and other key markets. Under the partnership, Velo3D will develop process parameters for new alloys with Praxair’s TruForm powders and will qualify PST as an approved supplier of powder for released parameter sets for Velo3D’s additive manufacturing (AM) solutions. Two of Praxair’s TruForm powders — 718 and 64 — have already been validated with Velo3D’s Sapphire.

“PST is constantly looking for ways to help expand the number of applications that are addressable by metal additive manufacturing, and Velo3D is a great company to partner with in this effort,” said Andy Shives, business manager for additive manufacturing at PST. “Velo3D’s technology enables the building of difficult geometries, which opens up new opportunities for additive manufacturing across a broad range of applications.”

“We have a focus on advancing powder and atomization technology, and this goes hand-in-hand with Velo3D’s focus on advancing the laser powder bed process,” Shives continues. “Both companies are supporting efforts around process and quality control, which are critical for faster adoption of metal AM, and we look forward to pushing the envelope together.”

The qualification of powder from leading powder suppliers ensures that Velo3D’s customers can purchase powder directly from the supplier that has demonstrated its powders work in the Velo3D Sapphire metal additive system.

“Velo3D was founded to enable customers to manufacture any design they can conceive,” said Stefan Zschiegner, chief product and chief marketing officer at Velo3D. “Praxair is a trusted alloy solution provider and the right kind of partner for Velo3D’s rigorous standards for metal powder quality. Together, we drive adoption of additive for manufacturing.”

Velo3D enables manufacturers to produce difficult parts previously considered impossible with additive manufacturing. Manufacturers use the Sapphire production system with Velo3D’s Flow™ print preparation software for the printing of complex geometries that otherwise would have been impossible or non-economical to print due to hard to remove support structures.