Scandium Canada Ltd. has provided an update on its Scandium+ division's efforts to advance the industrial adoption of its proprietary aluminum-scandium alloys. The company has commissioned the Centre de Metallurgie du Quebec to produce wires using two proprietary alloy formulations for welding and Wire Additive Advanced Manufacturing trials, with work expected to complete by March 2026 and prototypes submitted for third-party end-user testing. This work is supported by grants from the CQRDA, of which the company is a member.
The company estimates that these welding and WAAM applications alone could generate demand for up to 30 tonnes per year of scandium oxide, addressing a market segment that currently doesn't exist. For reference, the company's Crater Lake Project is expected to produce 91 tonnes per year of scandium oxide. These applications result from findings in a study from Productique Quebec announced in October 2025.
Scandium Canada is collaborating with Gränges Powder Metallurgy, a wholly owned subsidiary of global aluminum technology company Gränges, following a Memorandum of Understanding signed in November 2025. Current efforts aim at trialling the company's modified AA535 and AA7075 alloys into GPM's product offerings. GPM is a global supplier of sprayformed aluminum products and aluminum powders for additive manufacturing.
Through in-kind support from Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program, Scandium Canada has received a technical report from experts at the Additive Manufacturing Division of the National Research Council of Canada. This report identifies materials qualification strategies for adopting the company's alloys in space applications like waveguides and antennas, aerospace applications including small heat exchangers for aviation, and defence applications such as ballistic plating.
Building on the Productique Quebec report completed in fall 2025, which identified 13 target applications for the company's Al-Sc alloys including welding wires, aircraft ducting, and heat exchangers, Scandium Canada is actively expanding outreach to industrial end users across key market segments. These segments include aerospace, automotive, advanced manufacturing and 3D printing.
The company's two proprietary alloys and their fabrication method, developed in collaboration with McMaster University, are protected by an international patent application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty on September 17, 2025. This builds on an initial provisional patent application filed with the USPTO in September 2024. The intellectual property is wholly owned by Scandium Canada Ltd. and strategically positions the company for global commercial applications.
Technical results reported in September 2025 showed that the company's modified AA535 and AA7075 alloys offer a practical solution to eliminating micro-cracking in high-strength aluminum alloys during laser powder-bed fusion processing. This has implications for their suitability in aluminum welding and WAAM. Key attributes include reduced scandium content while maintaining grain-refining effect, a broad processing window with relative densities above 99%, ultimate tensile strengths of approximately 330 to 380 MPa in the as-built state with 17–25% increases after heat treatment, and minimized defect density through the company's proprietary blending procedure.
Dr. Luc Duchesne, Head of Scandium+ division and Chief Science Officer, commented that the company aims to find the shortest pathways for commercialization of its alloys through co-development opportunities with industrial users and increasing understanding of alloy properties to meet specific technical requirements. He noted that because of the novelty of commercial scandium applications, Scandium+ serves as a catalyst for the scandium industry at large.
Mr. Guy Bourassa, CEO of Scandium Canada, added that confirmation of commercial acceptance of the company's alloys represents an important milestone in developing the Crater Lake project. This confirmation will help establish markets, volumes, and pricing to support the financial model of the pre-feasibility study due in June 2026. The company's efforts represent significant progress toward creating new industrial applications for scandium-enhanced materials that could transform manufacturing processes across multiple sectors.
