MPIF President Rodney Brennen, Metco Industries, Inc., provides the State of the North American PM Industry report at the WorldPM2022 Congress.

After 4 long years, the global PM community was able to meet at the WorldPM2022 Congress in Lyon, France. Organized by the European Powder Metallurgy Association (EPMA), the World Congress attracted over 1,000 professionals from 56 countries. Delegates were pleased to have their first face-to-face World Congress since WorldPM2018 in Beijing. The MPIF WorldPM2020 was cancelled dues to the COVID-19 pandemic. WorldPM2024, October 14-17, 2024, in Yokohama, Japan, will be organized by the Asian Powder Metallurgy Association (APMA) and Japan Powder Metallurgy Association (JPMA).

Listed from left to right: Nick Skok, Gasbarre Automation Solutions; Tyler Cuneo, APMI West Penn Chairman; Sean Rupprecht, APMI West Penn Secretary; Brent Matheson, APMI West Penn Treasurer; Steve Reed, APMI West Penn Vice Chairman

The West Penn Chapter of the APMI International held their monthly meeting at The Royal Inn, attended by 101 industry professionals and sponsored by Gasbarre Automation Solutions.

A microscopic image of 3D-printed 17-4 stainless steel. The colors in the left-side version of the image represent the differing orientations of crystals within the alloy. 

For airliners, cargo ships, nuclear power plants and other critical technologies, strength and durability are essential. Therefore, many contain a remarkably strong and corrosion-resistant alloy called 17-4 precipitation hardening (PH) stainless steel. A team of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Argonne National Laboratory has identified particular 17-4 steel compositions that, when printed, match the properties of the conventionally manufactured version. The researchers’ strategy is based on high-speed data about the printing process they obtained using high-energy X-rays from a particle accelerator. 

The 2022 Metal AM Outstanding Technical Paper Award has been selected, and this year's winning paper is "Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of FSLA Steel Produced by the Binder Jet Process” by Chris Schade, Tom Murphy, and Kerri Horvay, Hoeganaes Corporation. The paper was selected from among the highly qualified manuscripts that were presented at the AMPM2022 conference in Portland and critically evaluated for the prestigious award.

LIFT, the Detroit, Michigan-based Department of Defense manufacturing innovation institute, along with the Department of Defense (DOD), have launched two projects led by Boeing as part of the ongoing Hypersonics Challenge led by the institute, focusing on powder metallurgy refractory metal matrix composites and in-situ monitoring development for hypersonic systems.