UK-based metallic 3D printing powder producer Metalysis has secured almost €1 million from the European House Company (ESA) to deal with two issues which have lengthy unsettled Western aerospace: the place to supply titanium, and find out how to produce it extra cleanly.
The ESA funding will assist a 24-month undertaking to develop the South Yorkshire producer’s proprietary Fray, Farthing, and Chen (FFC) Cambridge electrolysis course of from its present batch operation right into a steady or quasi-continuous one for titanium manufacturing, with purposes meant for each house and non-space industries.
Titanium’s attraction to aerospace engineers has all the time been easy. It’s sturdy, mild, corrosion-resistant, and performs reliably at excessive temperatures. The difficulties have by no means been with the fabric itself however with the world round it.
Earlier than 2022, Russia equipped a lot of the titanium sponge utilized by Western aerospace producers. That offer is now successfully closed off, and China has moved in to fill the void, at the moment accounting for round 70% of world output. For an trade that treats provide chain safety as a near-engineering concern, that’s an uncomfortable place to be.
A Cleaner Path to Titanium
The usual manufacturing methodology, the Kroll course of, brings its personal set of issues. It’s multi-step by nature, requiring melting, thermomechanical processing, and high-purity uncooked supplies at every stage. It will depend on chlorine gasoline, produces important portions of hazardous waste, and is energy-intensive all through. It really works, however at appreciable value to each economics and the surroundings.
The FFC course of was developed on the College of Cambridge in 1997 with these actual shortcomings in thoughts. Slightly than following the Kroll route, it makes use of molten salt electrolysis to scale back titanium oxide electrochemically, yielding titanium straight in solid-state and bypassing the a number of melting levels that make typical manufacturing so concerned.
When mixed with Powder Metallurgy (PM) for Close to Internet Form (NNS) consolidation, it additionally eliminates the thermomechanical processing steps that add additional time and value to the standard route. The output is titanium of upper purity, produced with decrease power consumption, fewer hazardous by-products, and extra exact management over alloy composition. Metalysis holds the patent.
That course of presently runs in batch mode by the producer’s GEN-3 and GEN-4 reactors, a configuration that serves the AM sector adequately however falls properly in need of what the broader bulk titanium market calls for. Shifting to a steady or quasi-continuous operation is the central goal of the ESA undertaking, and attaining it can require experience properly past what any single firm holds.
To get there, Metalysis is main a five-company consortium drawn solely from the UK and EU. The British companions are Lucideon Ltd, TTP Plc, and NCHG Ltd, joined by Austria’s RHP-Expertise GmbH, which contributes particular powder metallurgy experience. Throughout the group, the consortium covers ceramics processing, supplies science, electrochemistry, course of improvement, and powder metallurgy, bringing collectively the total unfold of disciplines the undertaking calls for.
Rt Hon. John Healey, MP for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough & UK Secretary of State for Defence mentioned, “That is nice information for South Yorkshire. Metalysis is a world-leading innovator, and this funding from the European House Company is a robust vote of confidence within the cutting-edge superior manufacturing happening proper right here in our area.”
The Race to Safe Titanium Provide
The urgency round securing Western titanium provide is being addressed on the opposite facet of the Atlantic as properly. In the US, supplies firm IperionX secured a contract value as much as US$47.1 million from the US Division of Protection (DoD) to construct a totally built-in home titanium provide chain, from mineral extraction by to metallic manufacturing.
The funding covers two phases over two years, focusing on each a crucial minerals undertaking in Tennessee and a titanium manufacturing campus in Virginia. Just like the Metalysis undertaking, it’s constructed round proprietary non-Kroll manufacturing applied sciences, reflecting a broader recognition that fixing the provision downside and manufacturing course of downside are more and more the identical problem.
The demand facet of that equation can be shifting. In early 2026, Canadian titanium powder provider Tekna acquired a buy order for Ti-6Al-4V powder value CAD 1.5 million for laser powder mattress fusion (LPBF) 3D printing, positioned by an undisclosed US protection Tier-1 provider.
The amount represented a threefold improve over earlier orders from the identical buyer, following a separate CAD 2.0 million titanium powder order from one other US protection Tier-1 provider introduced simply weeks earlier. Each orders lengthen deliveries by 2026, pointing to an AM sector the place defense-driven demand for certified titanium powder just isn’t easing.
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Featured picture reveals demonstration of the movement of Metalysis metallic powders. Picture by way of Metalysis