Superalloy Atomisation Trials Using Revert and TurNings (SATURN)

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Many manufacturing processes produce waste materials which can be expensive to dispose of or are not readily recycled. This initiative is to take process contaminated metal waste turnings and machining by-products produced by our UK customer and convert them into a high purity, high value nickel alloy or stainless-steel powder for use in additive manufacturing/3D printing advanced applications including aerospace and medical. Upcycling of material is part of the Liberty / GFG Greensteel strategy and increases the value of an otherwise waste material by 10 times.The social restrictions due to the impact on the COVID 19 pandemic has added to the existing strain on the oil and gas industry and as such there is forecast to be a long term downturn in investment in the sector. As a result, there are large quantities of partially processed material within the UK oil and gas supply chain in addition to significant quantities of machining swarf generated in that industry.The proposal is for turnings to be processed in the UK to form a more manageable material to aid handling and melting for use in our 250kg Liberty Vacuum Induction Melting (VIM) furnace at the start of conversion to atomised powder. A finite element model will be developed to simulate induction melting of revert and turnings in various ratio. The model will guide the optimisation of furnace loading and melting process. First trials will take a 20kg sample of turnings and once proven a further 200kg load would be processed followed by full scale production trials on the newly commissioned Liberty VIM atomiser. Successful trial will lead to significant commercial opportunities.