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Text: James Woodcock
Vertical integration has been a recurring theme in the metal AM materials market for some years now as companies strive for the true industrialization of AM. EOS has now taken that logic to its conclusion with the full acquisition of Metalpine GmbH, an Austrian producer of high-quality metal powders in which it was already a shareholder.
The stated motivation is straightforward: a growing demand for titanium AM, and the strategic importance of being able to guarantee both material access and the process parameters that go with it. Metalpine will continue to operate independently and supply the broader market with titanium, iron, copper, molybdenum and nickel-based alloys.
While this move demonstrated further consolidation in the metal AM space, it doesn’t remove capacity or capability from the wider industry and provides EOS with further stability in metals powder supply.
It’s certainly true that while AM touts itself as (at least part) of the solution to the wider manufacturing world’s supply chain instabilities, as an industry we need to make sure we can truly achieve that without creating our own fragile infrastructure.
