Continuum Powders has spent over a decade engaged on a daring concept: why mine new steel when high-quality materials is already flowing by means of right now’s factories as scrap? Now, because of a main collaboration with Siemens Power, that imaginative and prescient is turning into an indication that a few of the world’s largest firms are starting to guess on round manufacturing.
Siemens wanted a greater technique to supply steel powders for its rising additive manufacturing (AM) operations, one thing that might provide reliability, sustainability, and insulation from the dangers of worldwide provide chains. Continuum delivered an answer: a round system that takes aerospace-grade scrap, recycles it, and turns it into high-quality powder for 3D printing.
“At Continuum, we recycle titanium, nickel, metal and customized alloys from top-tier sources—like Industrial Fuel Turbine (IGT) fan blades—and switch them into powder,” stated Rob Higby, CEO of Continuum Powders. “We’re not simply avoiding mines in Ukraine or China—we’re beginning with greater high quality feedstock. Continuum’s work with Siemens began as a technique to clear up a supplies problem, and rapidly became a totally native, round provide chain. That scrap is processed in our Houston, TX facility — supporting American manufacturing.”
Continuum Powders CEO Rob Higby.
The concept that “scrap isn’t waste, however potential” has change into the core of Continuum’s enterprise. And Siemens isn’t only a buyer. It’s the primary of what Continuum hopes can be many firms to shift towards this mannequin, which has many advantages. It avoids tariffs, provides worth predictability, lowers carbon emissions, and most significantly, it delivers constant, high-quality powders.
“We’re hitting each level a purchaser cares about: high quality, availability, worth, and sustainability,” Higby advised 3DPrint.com. “Most firms are fortunate in the event that they get one or two of these. We’re main in all 4. Most significantly, we aren’t importing materials, so availability isn’t tied to tariffs or international commerce points. And as a substitute of paying for mined metals, we’re turning scrap into powder to supply higher pricing and reduce the carbon footprint by over 99% in some instances.”
Round from the Begin
On the coronary heart of Continuum’s operation is a round answer that begins with used components—all the pieces from impellers to titanium shavings from machining—and ends with recent, additive-ready powder.
“Steel doesn’t lose its chemistry. It simply adjustments kind. So in the event you begin with high-quality scrap, clear it correctly, and re-atomize it, you’re getting powder that’s pretty much as good, or higher, than something mined.”
Continuum has constructed a community of processing companions throughout the U.S. to deal with all types of scrap steel, from failed builds and construct plates to machine chips, coated components, and even field-used parts like construct plates and shrouded impellers. If the chemistry matches, Continuum says it may well take it.
Premium steel powders.
Higby defined that they work with scrap sellers like August Metals, Globe Metals, California Metals, and Phoenix Turbine Flame Spray. These companions assist with early-stage processing, like eradicating coatings or getting ready components utilizing strategies like hydrochloric acid etching, to ensure the feedstock meets the very best high quality requirements.
From there, Continuum takes the fabric to its foundry in Houston, the place it’s melted down and reatomized, turning stable steel again into powder, prepared for 3D printing. And the method is repeatable. The powder produced from a recycled fan blade can be utilized in 3D printing, and as soon as it’s performed, Continuum can recuperate unused powder or worn-out components and begin the cycle once more.
“Each step of the way in which, we’re including worth and lowering waste,” defined Higby.
A Enterprise Mannequin Constructed for In the present day’s Challenges
What has helped Continuum stand out in right now’s local weather is how its mannequin naturally shields clients from disruption. In a world of commerce tensions, tariffs, and environmental laws, Continuum’s native, round system acts like a cushion.
Higby says, “If you supply regionally, you’re not relying on unstable commerce routes; if you use recycled feedstock, you’re not on the mercy of worldwide steel indexes. You get pricing you possibly can truly plan round.”
That type of resilience, he says, is successful over large industrial clients, and never simply because it’s inexperienced, however as a result of it really works.
The corporate’s flagship facility in Houston handles a lot of the international manufacturing, whereas its California web site focuses on R&D and titanium, and its Singapore workplace helps worldwide contracts. Continuum can be able to scale globally with a foundry that matches inside a transport container. Higby defined that they’ll deploy a foundry wherever on the planet as a result of it’s totally modular, with all of the pipes and parts designed to be disassembled, packed into the container, and reassembled on web site.
“All it wants is energy and fuel, making it ultimate for distant areas or worldwide companions trying to set up an area powder manufacturing hub with out main infrastructure,” Higby famous. “India, for instance, generates numerous titanium waste however faces main challenges with regards to mining and processing it regionally. To unravel that situation, we might construct an area atomizing hub and faucet into that materials.”
A Shift in Manufacturing Tradition
One of many extra compelling points of the Siemens partnership is how Continuum has helped the commercial large suppose in a different way about scrap. As an alternative of paying to discard used components, Siemens can now recycle them into feedstock for its personal AM machines.
“We’re speaking a couple of cultural shift. A restore technician may not know something about powder, however all of the sudden his job consists of contributing to a closed-loop supplies system. What was thought of scrap is now a part of a useful inner provide chain. It connects the dots throughout an organization in a approach that conventional casting or forging simply can’t.”
Continuum calls this its “melt-to-powder” method, or M2P. It’s a managed service mannequin whereby clients “don’t purchase machines, they purchase outcomes.” Continuum processes the scrap, atomizes it, and delivers powder, typically utilizing the client’s personal materials because the supply.
“It’s just like the Uber of steel powders,” Higby added. “Clear, dependable, high-quality. We’ve improved an outdated mannequin, and when you expertise it, you don’t return.”
The Greyhound 3.0 powder manufacturing system.
For the close to future, Continuum has its sights set on greater than nickel and titanium. The corporate is ramping up manufacturing of cobalt chrome and copper alloys, and continues to develop its checklist of supplies every quarter. Up to now, it has labored with over 35 alloys. Continuum can be exploring methods to vertically combine its provide chain, increase its U.S. footprint, and construct international partnerships in areas the place mining isn’t an choice, however there’s numerous scrap. Nations like Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) match that mannequin properly, since they’ve restricted steel extraction capabilities. In the meantime, industrial powerhouses like South Korea and Japan face tight environmental restrictions on mining however produce high-quality scrap.
Now that Siemens is working with Continuum, extra firms are reaching out, from protection contractors to vitality giants. The U.S. authorities’s push to make use of regionally made supplies can be serving to drive demand for Continuum’s made-in-America method.
Nonetheless, Higby says the story isn’t about coverage, however a couple of enterprise mannequin that simply works: “We didn’t construct this firm to react to tariffs or provide chain chaos. We constructed it to supply a greater technique to make powder. And now, the world’s realizing that’s precisely what it wants.”
Photographs courtesy of Continuum Powders
Subscribe to Our Electronic mail E-newsletter
Keep up-to-date on all the most recent information from the 3D printing trade and obtain info and provides from third get together distributors.
Add your 3D Fashions and get them printed rapidly and effectively.
