Quick Summary
• They’re a familiar sight at trade shows: Chinese powder companies with barren stands lacking parts. There’s maybe some glass vessel with powder in it and a semi-complete data sheet, but...
Additional Context
They’re a familiar sight at trade shows: Chinese powder companies with barren stands lacking parts. There’s maybe some glass vessel with powder in it and a semi-complete data sheet, but not much else. So far, Chinese powder vendors have offered cost savings but not much else. Often they have no machine settings or practical guidance on using the powder.
But we know that China is printing rockets and implants, and they will use a lot of machines for defense purposes as well. So there should be advanced powders, and there should be some Chinese powder vendors that know what they’re doing. But, kind of like Spanish wine, they really haven’t been exporting the good stuff. It doesn’t help that China has actively banned or dissuaded companies from exporting some powders and alloys over the last