Metalvalue — a French firm specialised in the production of metallic parts from gas-atomized powder — is building two new production facilities in the Normandy region to meet growing market demand as it seeks to boost sales to €180m over the next five years.
One plant, located near Louviers and representing an investment of more than €10m, is scheduled to be operational at the end of 2017. It will employ 40 people and will initially produce stainless steel parts, as well as titanium and nickel alloy parts. The first shipments of stainless steel fittings for aerospace applications are planned for the first half of 2018.
Metalvalue CEO Alain Honnart indicates that the company is also mulling a second French facility to produce the same parts in ordinary carbon steel with a view to starting production in early 2018. He says the company is currently in discussions to determine the exact location of the site, which will also involve a further €10m investment, shared with an unidentified partner.
The company is also planning to install another production facility at Pitres, close to an existing foundry operated by Manoir Industries. The latter will supply the new plant with liquid steel which will then be atomized. Construction of this 4,000m2 facility is due to get under way in September 2017. With this new €50m unit, Metalvalue Powder aims to double worldwide production capacity for gas-atomized steel powder. The new facility, which will employ 60-70 people and have an annual production capacity of more than 40,000t, is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2018.
The company’s strategic plan includes another new project that could come to fruition in 2018 — a research lab to be located in Normandy or at Saclay, close to Paris. The aim would be to capitalise on research synergies with companies like Safran or academic institutions like the MINES ParisTech engineering school to develop new composite materials.
Metalvalue acquired a 67% stake in French machine tool builder Meyer in October 2016. The latter now produces adiabatic compressing machines, which are a key part of Metalvalue’s MMS-Scanpac® process. Meyer also produces special machines for e.g. cryogenic machining.
In another move to meet strong market demand, Honnart explains that the company is seeking to increase the number of licence agreements for its MMS-Scanpac® process. Agreements have already been signed with two companies, one of which is European.
One of the issues at the present time is the supply of powder. In the case of steel powder, this will be resolved by the arrival of the new Metalvalue Powder facility. The company is counting on investments by other companies to secure supply of titanium and nickel alloy powders needed for aerospace parts. A key advantage of the Metalvalue process is reduced scrap — the company uses just 1.2kg of material to produce a 1kg fitting, compared with 3.4kg for a conventional process.