Advanced Powders and Coatings Inc – AP&C – has announced that the metal powder material supplier’s quality management system has been AS9100 certified by technical standard administrators SAE International.
AS9100 is the standard quality management system that has been adopted by the aerospace industry. Larger aerospace manufacturers often will not do business with companies that have not been certified. SAE publishes over 6000 technical and process manuals specifically optimized for the aerospace industry such as Aerospace Standards and Aerospace Recommended Practices.
The AS9100 certification allows AP&C to sell their high quality metal powders directly to a larger pool of aerospace companies who may have been unwilling to use them previously. These standards allow aerospace companies to ensure a standard level of quality and consistency is applied to all of the products and services that they use.
AP&C offers almost a dozen varieties of high-quality mostly titanium-based metal powders and they can even create custom metal powders in materials as diverse as nickel, cobalt, niobium, zirconium, molybdenum and tantalum. The company’s powder materials are primarily used in 3D printing processes, however they also have been used for metal injection molding and for the powder coating of metal parts.
APC is a subsidiary of industrial metal 3D printing company Arcam and supplies the metal powder materials used with their electron beam melting (EBM) 3D printers. Arcam has already worked with multiple aerospace companies and has developed several metal 3D printers optimized for the industry’s needs, but this certification will likely further strengthen its footing within the aerospace sector.
