Backed by funding from the U.S. military,IperionX is accelerating the scale up of ballistic grade titanium plates and large size military titanium components to strengthen the domestic critical supply chain for defence grade titanium materials in the United States.Awarded grant funding of up to USD 6.6 million,the company will upgrade equipment at its Virginia-based titanium manufacturing campus to prioritise mass production of military-spec titanium plates for defence scenarios including land combat platforms and maritime equipment.
Conventional titanium plate manufacturing involves lengthy procedures including titanium sponge production,multiple vacuum remelting, forging and hot rolling. The high-energy-consuming process leads to high costs and long lead times,limiting large-scale adoption in defence sectors.Leveraging proprietary powder-metallurgy technologies such as HAMR and HSPT,IperionX produces titanium powder from titanium ore or recycled titanium feedstock.Bypassing traditional melting and forging steps,it directly delivers titanium plates with forging-equivalent performance,streamlining workflows,improving material utilisation and cutting production costs.
Featuring high specific strength,corrosion resistance and impact resistance,titanium plates serve as armour substrates,hatch covers and structural parts for naval hardware.Replacing steel components helps reduce weight substantially and improves equipment mobility,payload capacity and service life.IperionX will conduct joint ballistic and impact-resistance validation with U.S. military research institutes to secure military qualification certification and translate technology into real-world hardware.Building on previous military programmes,the firm aims to ramp up capacity and build a complete domestic supply chain from titanium powder to finished components,lowering reliance on imported titanium and ensuring stable supply of titanium plates for ground combat vehicles and maritime platforms.
(The above content is sourced from IperionX.)
