Sandvik to focus on metal powders via Wolfram division | VoxelMatters - The heart of additive manufacturing

Swedish metal materials giant Sandvik held a Capital Markets Day for institutional investors, analysts and financial media where it revealed that it has revised its additive manufacturing strategy to focus primarily on metal powders via its Wolfram division, while a strategic review has been initiated for the additive services business which includes metal AM service provider BEAMIT. The event was held at one of Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions’ largest sites, in Tampere, Finland.

As a result of this, the Additive Manufacturing division which is part of Sandvik Manufacturing and Machining Solutions is moving, within the division, from Manufacturing Solutions (SMF) to Machining Solutions (SMS). The Sandvik Machining Solutions area includes Sandvik Coromant, Seco, Walter, Dormer Pramet and Wolfram, an Austrian business acquired by Sandvik in 2009 focusing on tungsten metal. Additive Manufacturing will thus merge with the Wolfram powder division to form a new multi-brand Powder Solutions division.

Wolfram operates a refining plant for producing tungsten carbide, including a chemical plant for recycling tungsten material, in St. Martin, Austria, where the headquarters is located. WBH also operates a mine and ore dressing plant in Mittersill, Austria. The company has been active in the tungsten industry since 1975 and offers tungsten carbide and tungsten metal powders.

Sandvik has been part of WBH’s global customer base for many years. Wolfram’s highly qualified R&D resources have created an offering of unique tungsten carbide grades, which were used for multiple applications by Sandvik. Tungsten carbide is the primary raw material of cemented carbide, and therefore the acquisition of Wolfram is of long-term strategic importance for Sandvik. Prior to the acquisition, Wolfram had sales of approximately SEK 1,800 M and 300 employees.

At the same time, SMF is increasing its focus on software with enabling hardware. Sandvik’s AM service activities, which are now under strategic review, include the investment made by the Swedish company in Italian metal AM service provider BEAMIT, which, in turn, acquired the UK-based metal AM service business of 3T Additive Manufacturing and continued to expand its metal AM service offer becoming the largest metal AM service by revenue in 2021 according to VoxelMatters Research data.

Because of these changes and other changes detailed during the presentation, the target of SMF revenues of 6 BSEK (about $600 million USD) in 2025, of which 60% comes from software, has been revised to a new target of having software revenues of 4 BSEK (about $400 million USD) in 2025. The SMF margin target has also been revised upwards from 20% to 22% in 2025. The overall Group target of software and digital revenues of 6.5 BSEK in 2025 remains unchanged. Sandvik also reconfirmed its Group financial targets announced in May 2022.