Oxford Performance Materials, Inc., a leader in advanced materials science and high performance additive manufacturing (HPAM), today announced the commercial launch of nickel-plated OXFAB-Ni, offering 3D-printed PEKK-based parts that replace high performance aluminum alloys for aerospace and industrial applications.

OPM's OXFAB technology is ideally suited for highly demanding end-market aerospace, satellite and defense applications where functional complexity and weight reduction can have a substantial and positive impact on performance, while also yielding cost and energy savings. OXFAB structures offer significant weight, cost and time-to-market reductions that are defined in a set of specified performance attributes in the exhaustive OPM B-Basis database, developed in conjunction with NASA and Northrop Grumman.

"We are very pleased to commercially launch OXFAB-Ni as this proprietary technology builds on our existing product portfolio to provide our customers with a new high performance additive manufacturing solution," said Lawrence Varholak, President of OPM Aerospace & Industrial. "With the launch of OXFAB-Ni, OPM can now offer our aerospace and industrial customers nickel-plated, fully functional end-use 3D-printed structural parts with a flexural strength-to-weight ratio equivalent to high performance titanium alloys such as 6AL-4V."

The principal material of construction for OXFAB-Ni is OPM's proprietary PEKK (poly-ether-ketone-ketone) formulation, OXPEKK. This high performance polymeric material has an extraordinary range of benefits that include robust mechanical performance, extreme temperature tolerance, high purity, gamma stability, and extremely high chemical resistance.