Swastik Tungsten Pvt Ltd has recently increased its manufacturing capacity for tungsten metal powder at its facility in Shrirampur, Maharashtra, India, some 130 km from Mumbai. The company states that it has installed a modern state of the art tungsten metal powder manufacturing unit at the site, with a monthly capacity of 22 mt.

Swastik Tungsten was established in 2000 and supplies tungsten metal powder and other non-ferrous metal powders to the domestic and international markets.
“We have a team of advanced professionals who are committed towards bringing innovation in terms of the features of the products. Our professionals adopt a committed approach towards excellence,” states the company.  

“We are equipped with advanced testing equipment to ensure that the products are properly checked for specific qualities. We have our own laboratory to test the products and ensure that the clients get the best.”

Swastik Tungsten's Managing Director, Ajit Arbatti, also announced plans to set up a sintered carbide MIM plant to further diversify the company's activities.


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Plymouth Minerals (ASX: PLH) will look to leverage expected supply shortages in tungsten by acquiring a brown fields tungsten project in Spain which could see exploration commence in Q4, 2013.

This should provide momentum for lightly capped Plymouth of under $3 million.

Under the deal, it will acquire the Morille tungsten-tin Project for cash and share based payments of €300,000 or A$420,000 over 12 months to earn 80% interest in the project.

Now tungsten project had previously produced tungsten and it was high quality tungsten concentrate evidently, until its closure in 1985 due a decline in the tungsten price.

Big A’s Place, the online leader in sandblasting parts, now has Trigger Operated Sand Blaster Guns in stock. The new guns at Big A’s Place are all available with Tungsten Carbide Nozzles, Boron Nozzles and Ceramic Nozzles.

At Big A’s Place, customers can also purchase sand blasters, sandblasting helmets and sandblasting cabinet gloves. At Sandblaster-Parts.com, clamps for sandblast gloves, sandblast hose couplers and sandblaster nozzle holders and air valves are also on sale. Sandblasting cabinet parts and sandblaster reclaimers and accessories as well as vacuum heads are also available. Sandblaster filter cartridges and dust bags and sandblaster cabinet glass and Sandblaster moisture traps and moisture separators are also available at Sandblaster-parts.com.

Pressure gauge needles, blast tungsten carbide nozzle(or other nozzles) and orifice gauges and even leather, double-palmed sandblasting gloves, for only $12.25, can be found at Big A’s Place / Sand Blaster Parts. At Sandblaster-Parts.com, customers can also find competitive prices that give Big A’s Place / Sand Blaster Parts an edge over the competition. CLIP safety clips are also available at Big A’s Place / Sand Blaster Parts.

Customers can find detailed product information at Big A’s Place. There is even an explanatory chart detailing how to size sandblasting gloves as well as a sandblasting chart to explain how to size a pressure nozzle. Nova Sandblasting Helmets are also sold at Big A’s Place / sandblaster-parts.com. Big A’s Place can accommodate customers in any part of the United States as well as Canadian customers. Customer service representatives are also available by phone or email in order to answer every customer’s question. Whatever the need, Big A’s Place can deliver.


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Avrupa Minerals (CVE:AVU) says it has started phase 2 diamond drilling program at its Covas tungsten joint venture in northwest Portugal, which is operated by the Canadian company and fully funded by partner Blackheath Resources (CVE:BHR).

The new diamon drilling program, which will include up to 2,000 metres of drilling at up to 19 separate locations, will aim to expand known deposits and mineralization around the Covas property.

This latest round of drilling follows the previous phase 1, which the partners completed earlier this year.

"We are excited about the start-up of Phase 2 drilling at Covas. After good success in the Phase 1 diamon drilling program, we have developed a number of new targets designed to enlarge and upgrade the known tungsten mineralization in our key areas, as well as several other new areas," said Avrupa president and CEO, Paul W. Kuhn, in a statement released Thursday.

"We are eager to continue to expand the historic resources at Covas and move towards the next phase in the exploration and development of the project."

Specifically, the phase 2 program will focus on step-out expansion targets in several of the known tungsten-bearing skarn zones that were found in the previous round, the company said. It will start with the Lapa Grande area, following on results from phase 1 which included an intercept of 2.89% tungsten over 5.10 metres. The Telheira deposit will also be drilled after results of 2.11% tungsten over 7.98 metres.              

Covas is a past-producing tungsten mine, and remaining historic resources on the property have been estimated at 922,900 metric tonnes of 0.78% tungsten by Union Carbide in 1980, based on work including 327 drill holes on the property. Avrupa says mineralization is open to expansion.

The price of tungsten has increased significantly in recent years and is currently approximately $41 per kilogram of contained tungsten trioxide, according to the Canadian junior explorer's statement.  

Avrupa, which has properties in Portugal, Kosovo and Germany, holds a total of 16 exploration licenses in these European countries, including 10 in Portugal. It operates three joint ventures in Portugal, including the Covas partnership with Blackheath and the Alvalade joint venture with Antofagasta Minerals in the southern part of the country.        

Earlier this year, it signed a third deal to option out its Arga tungsten-gold project to tungsten explorer Blackheath, giving Blackheath the option to acquire up to an 85 per cent interest in the property over several years.


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Allegheny's tungsten material business, ATI Tungsten Materials, makes tungsten powder, tungsten heavy alloys, tungsten carbide materials and carbide-cutting tools.

"It is a very core strategic deal for (Kennametal) that enhances its tungsten recycling capability," Longbow Research analyst Eli Lustgarten told Reuters.

Kennametal said the acquired business, which recovers tungsten from scrap, would boost raw material sourcing and accelerate plans to develop an advanced tungsten carbide recycling facility in the United States.

"We expect this acquisition to reduce our raw material costs while securing our supply of tungsten," Chief Financial Officer Frank Simpkins said on a conference call with analysts.

Kennametal's metal-cutting tools, tooling supplies and other products are used for making products such as airframes, and in mining operations and oil wells.

The deal with Allegheny also aligns with Kennametal's acquisition of Comercializadora Emura S.R.L. that closed in August, the company said.

La Paz, Bolivia-based Emura processes and sells tungsten ore material.

Kennametal's shares were up 1.2 percent at $46.54 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while those of Allegheny Technologies were up nearly 9 percent at $31.12.

Allegheny said the sale would help it concentrate on its high-performance metals and flat-rolled products businesses.

Kennametal said the acquisition would also strengthen its tooling business in the areas of metal cutting and metal finishing technologies, adding brands such as Stellram Products and Garryson Products.

The company said it expects the acquisition to reduce planned capital expenditure by about $30 million-$35 million.

Kennametal said it plans to fund the acquisition through a combination of cash and credit. The deal is expected to be neutral to earnings for fiscal 2014 ending June.

"The acquisition will be accretive to earnings per share within a year," Chief Executive Carlos Cardoso said on the call.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC advised Kennametal. Goldman, Sachs & Co was the financial adviser to Allegheny, while K&L Gates LLP was the legal counsel.

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Vantage Drilling Company (Vantage) announced Monday that the Tungsten Explorer (UDW drillship) commenced initial operations in Southeast Asia on the morning Sept. 20.

Vantage also announced that the Sapphire Driller (375' ILC) has received a Letter of Intent for an 18 month contract plus options to work in West Africa. This contract will replace the previously announced two-year Letter of Award, as Vantage was unable to satisfactorily resolve significant contract issues with the previous customer. The estimated revenue over the initial 18 month term of the contract is approximately $100.4 million, including mobilization.

CLOVER The Clover High School Band Boosters in partnership with Custom Recycling of York will hold a metal drive 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, at Clover High School to raise money for the band program’s general fund.

A 30-yard roll off container will be set up for collections in the back parking lot of the high school. The Boosters will accept almost all scrap metal parts during this metal drive including aluminum, copper, brass, carbide, cobalt, electric motors, electronic scraps, gold, iron, lead, lithosheet, molybdenum, nickel, precious metals, radiators, silver, solder, steel, tin, titanium, tungsten and X-ray film.

Family wins Primrose scholarship

CHARLOTTE The Hancock family of Belmont, who recently moved from Lake Wylie, returned to Primrose School of Lake Wylie in Steele Creek for the first day of school Aug. 26 after winning a scholarship during the Primrose Schools National Facebook Scholarship Sweepstakes.

To promote its inaugural National Open House Event last month, Primrose Schools offered current and prospective families the opportunity to win a one-year scholarship by entering the sweepstakes on Facebook.

Sara Hancock, mother of two, received the one-year scholarship after her family was randomly selected as the grand prize winner.

Family wins Primrose scholarship

CHARLOTTE The Hancock family of Belmont, who recently moved from Lake Wylie, returned to Primrose School of Lake Wylie in Steele Creek for the first day of school Aug. 26 after winning a scholarship during the Primrose Schools National Facebook Scholarship Sweepstakes.

To promote its inaugural National Open House Event last month, Primrose Schools offered current and prospective families the opportunity to win a one-year scholarship by entering the sweepstakes on Facebook.

Sara Hancock, mother of two, received the one-year scholarship after her family was randomly selected as the grand prize winner.
 

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Thick composite coatings of carbides (e.g. WC) in a metal matrix are ideal for components subject to heavy abrasive wear. An emerging deposition technique for such wear resistant cemented carbide coatings is laser cladding. This technique has, contrary to surface welding and spraying methods, the potential to coat very locally and on highly complex components.

Adhesion and damage resistance is also improved by laser cladding. In this paper the influence of carbide particle size and distribution on the wear resistance of laser clad coatings is discussed. A nickel based matrix reinforced with WC/W2C carbides is deposited by a CO2 laser on low carbon steel substrates. Different coatings are made with three different particle sizes of the carbides and volume fractions ranging from 0 up to 50%. Three different wear modes are evaluated. First, ball-on-disc tests with an Al2O3 ball have been performed. The ball cratering test with 4 μm SiC abrasive is used to assess mild abrasive wear.

Finally, the resistance against severe two body abrasion is tested in a pin-on-disc test. A clear dependency of the wear resistance on the carbide concentration is found, which is more pronounced for the coatings with the finest WC/W2C carbides. The magnitude of the decrease in wear however is highly dependent on the wear mode. In two body abrasion and in the sliding wear, a small amount of carbides is sufficient to improve the wear resistance drastically. Other coating characteristics such as microstructure, hardness and internal stress are assessed.

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Those interested in investing in the fast-growing additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, industry will soon have another option. Germany-based Voxeljet filed for an initial public offering on Sept. 17 to raise up to $100 million. The company will join 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD  ) , Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS  ) , and ExOne (NASDAQ: XONE  ) as the pure play 3-D printing companies trading on major U.S. stock exchanges when it lists on the NYSE under the ticker VJET.

Could Voxeljet be an attractive investment? Where does it fit into, and how might it alter, the industry landscape?

Pricing terms weren't disclosed, so we can't get a feel for valuation, such as price-to-sales or price-to-earnings ratios. But, this tech IPO does have earnings. We can, however, look at some financials and potential competitive advantages.

Big build boxes & big competition
Voxeljet provides high-speed, large-format 3-D printers and on-demand parts services to industrial and commercial customers. It offers five platforms priced from $163,000 to $2.1 million. The company was founded in 1999, and one of the founders and the key inventor of its technology, Dr. Ingo Ederer, is CEO.

It's not involved in the consumer market, so in this respect, it's more similar to ExOne, an industrials pure play. 3D Systems and Stratasys offer primarily consumer and commercial printers. Also like ExOne, its on-demand parts printing service accounts for a large portion (55% in the first half of 2013) of its business. It's now in the process of more than doubling the size of its German service center -- which it believes to be one of the largest in the EU --  to 40,000 sq. ft. and plans to use IPO proceeds to establish service centers in North America and Asia.

Its printers use powder binding technology, which involves chemical binding agents used to bind together the material being printed. ExOne uses a similar technology. Voxeljet's printers have several sand and plastics capabilities. It's currently developing new material sets, including additional sands, PMMA-based plastics (think Plexiglas), ceramics, silicon carbide, tungsten carbide, wood powder, and cement.

ExOne is the primary competitor on the sand end, as its machines also produce sand molds, which industrial customers use to cast metal components. ExOne also sells machines that have industrial metals and glass capabilities. 3D Systems and Stratasys are competitors on the plastics end.

Given the similar technology and sand-based castings focus, it's not a surprise, there's a Voxeljet, ExOne link. In 2003, Voxeljet granted ExOne exclusive rights to make and sell machines related to certain patents and technology using binders and sand-based casting in return for royalty payments. Voxeljet can use these patents for printers working with plastics. The prospectus states: "We believe these restrictions will not materially impact the growth of our business, as we have developed processes which do not rely upon the subject patent portfolio and associated agreements."

The obvious question: How do these two companies' sand-based castings technologies compare?

I don't have input at this point, but it's a question ExOne investors and those considering investing in Voxeljet should explore. These companies are direct competitors. Further, they're now each expanding or planning to expand in the other's home turf. Voxeltjet plans to open service centers in North America as well as Asia. And ExOne announced in August that it's building a facility that will double its footprint in Germany.

Voxeljet serves the foundry, auto, heavy equipment, power fluid handling, and aerospace industries. Customers include Daimler, BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Porsche, 3M, and Liebherr Group (a manufacturer of construction equipment and aircraft parts). Its commercial focus is on the film and entertainment, architecture, medical products, and consumer products industries.

The Prop Shop, which makes props for the entertainment industry, is a major customer. (Voxeljet and Propshop got a lot of press for producing the stunt-double Aston Martin cars used in the 2012 James Bond film "Skyfall.")

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A new hard metal recently developed can be used to replace tungsten carbide (WC), the hard metal widely used in industry today and whose global availability is becoming critical.

The new material, developed over the past three years by Finnish-based Exote Ltd and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, also possesses excellent bullet-proofing qualities.  Ballistic tests have show it has an un-equalled ability to stop armor-piercing bullets.

The hard metal is known as WC Co contains tungsten carbide (WC) and  cobalt (co), both of which are defined by the EU as critical and, in the case of cobalt, dangerous to health.  Tungsten carbide is commonly used in industrial applications demanding strength and durability. The EU critical materials list contains those substances of significance to the EU economy but whose availability is at great risk, and are mostly non-renewable. Exote's material is a more ecological alternative and the new manufacturing technology enables comparable properties to be acquired from other raw materials.

Exote's material withstands high temperatures and has high-level strength and durability. The metal is ideal for the manufacture of crusher blades and shear cutters, as well as exacting product tools. In ballistic protection it can be used to both personal- and vehicle protection. At the highest NATO-defined protection levels, the material has been proved to be superior. The growing threat of roadside bombs, grenade splinters and armor-piercing bullets can now be reduced by solutions based on this new material, they note.

VTT and Exote Ltd carried out further development on the material Exote has in production through the use of nano additives, which enable changing its toughness and hardness according to intended use.

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