Metal Powder Works to begin powder manufacturing in Neighborhood 91
August 26, 2022
Metal Powder Works (MPW), Sewickley, Pennsylvania, USA, has announced that it will join Neighborhood 91, the Additive Manufacturing production campus located at Pittsburgh International Airport. The new facility will function as the company’s main powder production site, expanding capacity by a factor of eight and signalling a shift to an operational focus as the company winds down fundamental development.
Founded in 2017 by John E Barnes and Chris Aldridge, MPW aims to bring a step change in metal powder production yield, cost and quality with its proprietary DirectPowder™ powder production technology. The process converts feedstock into fine powder particles via software-drive, patent-pending technology, which reportedly converts nearly 100% of input material into suitable powder without the need for melting. DirectPowder is said to allow for specific particle size distributions and enables non-equiaxed morphologies.
MPW will market and sell primarily aluminium and copper powders from the Neighborhood 91 location. Tom Bockius, MPW’s Technical Director, will oversee the construction and installation of equipment at Neighborhood 91, with the company planning to be fully operational by the end of October 2022.
“The concept of Neighborhood 91 was always to bring an Additive Manufacturing supply chain to one centralised location,” stated John Barnes, MPW founder and CEO. “We’re excited to be a part of Pittsburgh’s advanced manufacturing scene.”
Neighborhood 91: The bridge to Additive Manufacturing production
We reported on the Neighborhood 91 campus in more detail in the Autumn 2020 edition of Metal AM magazine. The full report is available to read here.
