Platinum is one of six platinum-group metals (PGMs), characterised by their high value, low reactivity, and high melting point. The preciousness and nobleness of platinum makes it a popular metal for high-end jewellery: engagement rings, wedding rings and watches. The low susceptibility to oxidation, and high melting point also make it well-suited to ultra-high temperature coating applications, such as for turbine blades and thrusters.
Alloyed’s ABD® PGM platform is built to optimise alloy composition for jewellery and high temperature applications. Models for key properties, relevant to both industries, are available in the platform, including hardness, porosity, melting point, oxidation resistance, and cost. The models utilise a combination of thermodynamics, physical metallurgy, and machine learning. In combination with the ABD® platform, these models enable screening of a large composition space which is something that would be too slow and costly to do through experimental means alone.
Specialist experimental capabilities in our Oxford site have been established for PGMs, guided by the demands of each industry. For jewellery, tests include investment casting, porosity quantification, and hardness evaluation. For coatings, tests include coating deposition, oxidation, and interface characterisation.