New Delhi: RUSAL, a leading global aluminium producer, has unveiled a breakthrough in a composite material for 3D printing. The new metal matrix composite designated RS-770K offers a tensile strength 30% greater than that of the strongest aluminium powder alloys, opening new frontiers for additive manufacturing in high-performance applications.
Developed in-house, the RS-770K composite combines an aluminium matrix with ceramic particles, achieving a remarkable tensile strength of 615 Megapascals (MPa). This represents a 30% increase over the RS-553 alloy—the strongest aluminium powder alloy in RUSAL’s portfolio, which contains a high percentage of the rare-earth metal scandium.
The material’s unique properties bridge a critical gap in additive manufacturing in retaining the signature lightness of aluminium, and its strength characteristics mark a significant step toward those of steel and titanium alloys. Aluminium is one of the lightest structural metals, approximately three times lighter than steel and one-and-a-half times lighter than titanium.
RS-770K is the first 3D-printing composite developed by RUSAL’s R&D Department. Previously, the department created more than ten aluminium alloys for additive manufacturing, all designed to enhance key properties—such as strength, heat resistance, and yield strength—beyond those of the industry-standard AlSi10Mg powder alloy.
India is rapidly maturing in its adoption of 3D technologies, with strong pockets of readiness across healthcare, education, and select manufacturing sectors. Policy initiatives like MeitY’s National Strategy on Additive Manufacturing (NSAM) provide clear targets, including developing India-specific AM technologies, incubating startups, commercialising products, and training skilled personnel. For example, the strategy explicitly aims to develop 50 India-specific AM technologies, incubate 100 new AM startups, commercialise 500 AM products, open 10 manufacturing sectors to AM, and train 100,000 skilled people. That policy signal is already changing behaviour across institutions and industry.
“India has a promising additive manufacturing ecosystems, with strong policy support, a rapidly growing industrial base and a clear focus on advanced materials,” said Roman Borisov, Regional Sales Head, Rusal. “RS-770K offers tremendous potential for Indian OEMs, service bureaus and research centres to develop lightweight, high-performance parts across aerospace, automotive and other strategic sectors using this ultra-strong composite.”
In this context, high-performance composite materials like RS-770K can support Indian manufacturers as they scale up the use of metal additive manufacturing for demanding applications, enabling lighter, stronger and more complex components in sectors such as aerospace, nuclear power, electric mobility and infrastructure.
