Jingye Lide: The story of an ambitious journey to become the world’s largest MIM-grade metal powder manufacturer
The dramatic growth of China's Metal Injection Moulding industry over the past decade has not only seen MIM producers thrive, but it has driven major investments in metal powder production capabilities. One of the biggest success stories is that of Jingye Lide Additive Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a company whose production has grown from 50 tons of atomised powder in 2009 to 4,000 tons in 2020. It is planning to increase capacity to 40,000 in the near future. Dr Chiou Yau Hung (Dr Q) reports on a recent visit to the company for PIM International. [First published in PIM International Vol. 15 No. 3, Sept 2021 | 10 minute read | View on Issuu | Download PDF]
The camera lens protectors on some of the newest models of Apple’s iPhones used over the past three years led a wave of new technology development in the 3C industry (Fig. 1). Produced from CoCrMo alloy (ASTM F75) powder manufactured by Jingye Lide Additive Manufacturing Co., Ltd and formed using Metal Injection Moulding, this material offers high strength and no magnetic interference, making it the ideal alloy for a variety of applications in smartphones, including parts that improve data transmission, offer higher quality images, and unparalleled component design freedom. Parts made from Jingye Lide’s F75 powder accounted for more than 80% of the total shipments of this component in the past three years and more than 300 million people are using this MIM part on a daily basis.
The predecessor to Jingye Lide Additive Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was Shijiazhuang Lide Powder Materials Co., Ltd., established in 1996. Here, the early technical support in the field of metal powder production came from China Iron and Steel Research Institute Group (CISRI). In 2009, Lide began manufacturing MIM-grade 304L stainless steel powder, having started with atomised copper powder, selling only about 50 tons in that year.
At that time, Lide was determined to focus on the research and production of stainless steel powders for MIM. In the same year, it cooperated with Pony Testing International Group Co., Ltd. to ensure that all products were manufactured in accordance with the requirements of the European Union’s environmental protection directives. Samples were sent to Pony for analysis and the preparation of data for Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and REACH, and Material Safety Data Sheets.
Since that time, China’s MIM industry has seen sales grow dramatically year by year, and Lide’s powder production capacity and sales have expanded with it. In 2018, the company expanded its atomised powder production line for the second time, with the addition of 4,600 tons of annual production capacity. As can be seen in Fig. 2, the total tonnage of powder sales at Jingye Lide has grown year by year from 50 tons in 2009 to 4,000 tons in 2020. Shijiazhuang Lide Powder Materials was incorporated into Jingye Group in 2019, and the establishment of Jingye Lide Additive Manufacturing Co., Ltd. followed in 2020.
Joining the Jingye Group
The Jingye Group, headquartered in Pingshan County, Hebei Province, China, is a large-scale steelmaking business (Fig. 3), and the firm makes a significant contribution to China’s GDP growth every year. The group is mainly engaged in the production of steel products, and is composed of Headquartered Steel, Ulanhot Steel, Yunnan Jingye Steel and Guangdong Jingye Steel. It is a multinational enterprise group that engages in deep processing of steel and Additive Manufacturing, as well as the international trade, tourism, and hotel businesses, and has also cooperated with British Steel overseas. The total number of employees currently exceeds 31,000, and this number is increasing every year. In 2020, the group’s sales revenue was RMB 2,244 billion (approx. $35.1 billion).
Jingye Lide Additive Manufacturing Co., Ltd.’s team is comprised of a mix of young, highly motivated employees, as well as very experienced senior materials engineers, with the combined result being a strong team well positioned to serve the MIM and metal AM industries, as well as the magnetic powder materials industry (Fig. 4). Many of the team members used to be classmates in middle school, university and/or at research institutes. Throughout the working life of Jingye Lide staff, the company offers a variety of learning courses for ongoing professional development, and offers schooling from elementary to middle school for employees’ children.
Metal powders produced by Jingye Lide
At present, the bulk of Jingye Lide’s sales are generated by two categories of gas atomisation: conventional gas atomisation, and combined water-gas atomisation (Fig. 6).
Gas atomised powder
Jingye Lide produces two kinds of gas atomised powder. The first is a coarse-grained powder (100~150 μm), used primarily for laser cladding and repairs on Jingye Group’s internal steel-making equipment, with at least 50 tons used per year. The second, a medium-grade particle size powder (15~100 μm), is used primarily in Additive Manufacturing processes such as Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB), Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-EB), and powder-based Directed Energy Deposition (DED). The volume of medium-grade particle size powder produced is about 200 tons/year.
Water-gas combined atomised powder
Jingye Lide uses combined water-gas atomisation to produce a wide range of fine grade powders (3~25 μm) mainly used in the MIM industry. At present, the company can produce at least 2500 tons of MIM stainless steel powder annually. MIM powder grades are also suitable for metal Binder Jetting (BJT), with the use of comparatively low-cost MIM powders in sinter-based AM processes promising to expand demand in future industrial applications.
Combined water-gas atomisation is also used to produce fine grade soft magnetic metal powder (3~50 μm), used for passive electronic components with magnetic functions. This grade of powder has a volume of 1200 tons/year. A surge in demand for soft magnetic materials, including powders, is expected after the advent of 5G communication.
Material classifications
The powder categories produced by Jingye Lide are divided approximately into iron-based and stainless steel materials; soft magnetic materials; copper and copper alloys; cobalt alloys, etc. Other special materials are also accepted by customers, but these must comply with standard international material specifications. At present, the best-selling of the company’s powders are stainless steels 304L, 316L and 17-4PH, and soft magnetic FeSiCr powder.
Additive Manufacturing services
Jingye Lide also operates as a contract manufacturer for metal AM parts, shipping finished AM components to customers including private enterprises, the military, and government agencies in China and abroad. The types of products additively manufactured by the company cover applications in aviation, aerospace, military engineering, chemical engineering and general engineering.
Jingye Lide additively manufactures parts using a number of PBF-LB and PBF-EB machines (Fig. 8), running nearly twenty-four hours a day. Recently, Jingye Lide has also used AM to produce MIM pre-production sample parts, helping to overcome the challenges around the selection of final designs by MIM customers before a tool is ordered.
Looking to the future
This year, Jingye Lide joined the China Powder Metallurgy Alliance (CPMA)’s ‘R&D share’ platform. As a raw material supplier, the company deeply understands the manufacturing process, and aims to share this knowledge to advance the future of China’s metal powder industry as a whole.
In order to provide a complete solution for its metal powder products, Jingye Lide also recently added new manufacturing equipment to help with materials and application development. These include an additional injection moulding machine, feedstock mixer and granulator, catalytic debinding furnace, and vacuum sintering furnace for the complete MIM process chain, a laser cladding machine, further metal AM equipment, and magnet pressing equipment. The company has also added a range of quality inspection equipment.
Jingye Lide is now situated in the Jingye Group Industrial Park and will be able to benefit from the advantages of this location going forward. In the near future, the company plans to promote its second and third phase plans, increasing from the original twenty to eighty combined water-gas atomisation production lines; increasing from four to twenty gas atomisation production lines; and increasing the number of AM machines installed in house from eleven to twenty. It is expected that this will bring the company’s total metal powder production capacity to a combined 40,000 tons/year. In continuing development along these lines, Jingye Lide aims to be the world’s largest specialist atomised metal powder production facility.
As Xu Hanxing, Deputy General Manager of Jingye Lide, stated, “Our goal is to achieve the lowest cost of metal powder, sharing the benefits with our customers and their customers, and help the powder forming industry to replace those processes and industries that cause an environmental burden.” Hanxing is keen to convince the world of the bright future of metal powder technology and approaches the future with this mantra in mind: “Based on raw materials, broaden MIM applications. The global MIM industry can change the world together. The future has already been planned by us. We must rely on ourselves to realise the future.”
Author
Dr Q (Y H Chiou)
You neeD Technical Office
Contact
Vivian Song
Overseas Sales Manager
Jingye Lide
