Cooksongold, Birmingham, UK, has launched a new industrial division — Cookson Industrial — focused on pioneering precious metal Additive Manufacturing for a range of performance-critical applications.

Part of HM Precious Metals, Cookson Industrial aims to provide an end-to-end service covering consultancy, R&D, NPD and production for Additive Manufacturing as well as traditional manufacturing. All of these services will be managed from the Birmingham head office and manufacturing site.

The use of precious metals in Additive Manufacturing expands the performance ability of AM in extreme environments, where traditional alloys have failed to meet the thermal and material application challenges. Cookson Industrial aims to help organisations looking to explore the technology to de-risk their development, simplify their supply chains and shorten time to market.

The company develops and manufactures a broad range of gas atomised precious metal powders on site, including gold, silver, platinum and palladium powders; all of which are refined from recycled sources where possible.

All precious metal powders are available for purchase in small batches up to 15 kg, or for use in Cookson Industrial’s Additive Manufacturing facility in Birmingham. This currently comprises six EOS Precious M 080 and M 100 machines, alongside a Renishaw AM 500S Flex single laser AM machine.

Cookson Industrial has already partnered with the University of Birmingham to explore the development of precious metal alloys for Additive Manufacturing applications across the aerospace, healthcare and glass fibre manufacturing industries. Both organisations were jointly awarded a £750,000 Early-stage Prosperity Partnership funding from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).