Picodeon Ltd., Finland, has developed ColdAb (cold ablation) ultra-short pulsed laser deposition technology (US PLD) for the application of gold and platinum thin films, enabling thinner films and thereby reducing precious metal costs. The new process produces thin films down to the nanoscale, with excellent quality at production rates exceeding technologies such as sputtering.

ASB Industries, Barberton, Ohio, reports that its 2000-2 Portable High Pressure Cold Spray system is being used by GE Aerospace for 3D printing of aerospace components. GE chose this system because it is capable of producing contamination-free and oxide-free dense coatings with high bond strength, processing a wide range of high purity materials, and controlling process parameters to build reproducible and homogenous coatings.

Ruukki Metals, Helsinki, has signed a contract to deliver 9000 metric tons of steel coated with Galfan zinc-aluminum alloy to the Spanish company CIE Egana. The material will be used to manufacture the support arms for the parabolic reflectors in a new thermosolar plant to be built in Morocco. The plant will have an output of 125 megawatts, making it one of the largest in the world, and the first to be built in Morocco.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT, Germany, announces that it has collaborated with several partners to develop a laser metal deposition process that builds up local layers on forming dies, increasing lifetime by over 150%. Researchers rebuilt a conventional five-axis milling machine so that it could be used to alloy forming dies automatically via laser.