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1887
Volume 59, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 2056-5135

Abstract

The supply chain for metal powders used in additive manufacturing (AM) is currently experiencing exponential growth and with this growth come new powder suppliers, new powder manufacturing methods and increased competition. The high number of potential supply chain options provides AM service providers with a significant challenge when making decisions on powder procurement. This paper provides an overview of the metal powder supply chain for the AM market and aims to give AM service providers the information necessary to make informed decisions when procuring metal powders. The procurement options are categorised into three main groups, namely: procuring powders from AM equipment suppliers, procuring powders from third party suppliers and procuring powders directly from powder atomisers. Each of the procurement options has its own unique advantages and disadvantages. The relative importance of these will depend on what the AM equipment is being used for, for example research, rapid prototyping or productionisation. The future of the metal AM powder market is also discussed.

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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2015-04-01
2024-12-21
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