Continuum and Mastrex Partner to Validate Metal Powders for LPBF Printers

What the partnership covers

Continuum Powders and Mastrex announced a strategic collaboration on August 18 to evaluate and validate metal powder materials on Mastrex's MX series laser powder bed fusion systems. The initial workload centers on three widely used alloys: cobalt chrome, Ti-6Al-4V, and 17-4 stainless steel. Nickel-based superalloys and copper-nickel alloys are scheduled for later phases.

The two companies will assess powder behavior, processing conditions, build consistency, and material performance across Mastrex's six-machine LPBF portfolio. The stated goal is to give customers reliable starting parameters so they do not have to spend weeks or months qualifying a new material from scratch.

Why this matters

Metal additive manufacturing still suffers from a materials-qualification bottleneck. A shop that buys a new LPBF system often faces a long, expensive grind to prove that a given powder performs consistently on that specific machine. Continuum and Mastrex are trying to compress that timeline by doing the qualification work upfront and sharing the results.

Mastrex entered the market with an explicit price-driven strategy, aiming to lower the barrier to entry for metal 3D printing. Partnering with a powder supplier lets the company bundle material and process data with its hardware, which is exactly the kind of complete solution Jon Cozens, Continuum's CEO, says customers are looking for.

Broader context

This is not a one-off press release. Both sides describe the announcement as the start of a longer technical collaboration. They plan to publish processing updates, application data, and customer success stories as validation milestones are reached. For buyers evaluating either Mastrex machines or Continuum powders, that pipeline of shared data could make the decision easier.

The partnership arrives at a time when closed-loop metal recycling and supply-chain security are getting more attention in additive manufacturing. Having a documented powder-to-machine compatibility matrix is useful, but it is also a competitive differentiator in a crowded LPBF market.