6K Selected as Manufacturer of the Year for Massachusetts' 14th Essex District

6K will receive the prestigious award at the 6^th Annual Manufacturing Awards Ceremony thanks to its commitment to the sustainable production of advanced materials  

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass., Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- 6K, an innovative leader in the production of sustainable advanced materials for energy storage and additive manufacturing powders, has been awarded the Manufacturer of the Year for Massachusetts' 14th Essex district.

6K was nominated by State Representative Christina Minicucci (D-North Andover) and will be honored by the Commonwealth's Legislative Manufacturing Caucus at Polar Park in Worcester, MA today. The Caucus, formed in 2014, focuses on training for manufacturing employees, encouraging innovation by helping start-ups access resources, and expanding apprenticeship opportunities in key manufacturing sectors. 6K's revolutionary UniMelt^® microwave plasma technology is the first of its kind to manufacture battery material and additive manufacturing powders in a sustainable and cost-effective way. 6K's performance materials are used in advanced manufacturing industries from aerospace manufacturing to Lithium-ion batteries to electric vehicle products.

Aaron Bent, 6K Chief Executive Officer thanked the state for its acknowledgement: "We at 6K appreciate the recognition from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Commonwealth Legislative Manufacturing Caucus. Performance materials are a critical component to our nation's national security, and we want to position Massachusetts as a hub for industries like advanced battery material production to aid in solving this challenge. Without the help of our communities and our legislative leaders, we would not have the ecosystem of innovation necessary to make this a reality. We are happy to call Massachusetts, and especially North Andover, our global headquarters. Special thanks to State Representative Christina Minicucci for nominating us for this award and recognizing our investment and hard work in the industry."

State Representative Christina Miniucci (D-North Andover), who nominated the company for the award had this to say: "6K's innovative technology coupled with its commitment to North Andover and other Merrimack Valley communities is why I nominated them for this award. With an MIT heritage, 6K is representative of the type of innovative company that combines world-class technology with both development and manufacturing expertise that we pride ourselves on in Massachusetts. 6K's technology and applications will keep Massachusetts's economy competitive for the future in very strategic areas such as battery and additive manufacturing materials."

6K previously announced the opening of a $25 million dollar Battery Center of Excellence, located in North Andover with plans to be finished by December 2021. The Battery Center of Excellence is focused on the development and production of sustainable battery materials for electric vehicles, grid storage and consumer goods. The new 33,000 sq/ft state-of-the-art facility will accommodate ten UniMelt systems that can produce as much as 100 tons of material from each system annually. This will support full scale development of materials such as high energy density and single crystal cathode, solid-state electrolyte materials, silicon anode for fast-charging and many more. The expansion will create production capabilities to fully support partner qualification, providing a gateway direct to domestic production. The Battery Center of Excellence will also allow 6K to offer dedicated UniMelt systems to customers, enabling the rapid commercialization of battery materials, which could have major implications for the cycle life and safety of future NMC-based EV products, making smaller, lower cost batteries a reality, without giving up vehicle range.

6K's mission is to provide a solution for global decarbonization in the production of performance materials, critical to manufacturing and production infrastructure. The UniMelt plasma production system is a revolutionary high volume production process, producing advanced performance materials in as little as two seconds versus two-three days. The UniMelt system displaces costly and wasteful legacy manufacturing approaches with a lower-cost, smaller footprint production technology, providing a path to meeting the cost demands the market requires. 6K's UniMelt platform offers multifaceted sustainability benefits like no other material production platform in the world.

6K press releases are available here: https://www.6kinc.com/about/news/

About 6K

6K represents 6000 degrees, the temperature of the surface of the sun, and the temperature of operation of our UniMelt® system, the world's only production-scale microwave plasma system. 6K uses proprietary advanced plasma processing and industrial systems to create materials that are enabling the next-generation of commercial and consumer products, at lower cost, sustainably.

The 6K ENERGY division will launch its $25M Battery Center of Excellence in 1Q22, fully capable of pilot production with up to 400 MWh of capacity. 6K is currently sampling customers and developing products across NMC, LFP, silicon dominant anode, solid-state electrolyte, and more.

The 6K ADDITIVE division includes a 45-acre ISO9001 24/7 operation facility, that reclaims and processes over a million pounds of Ti64 per year and has recently built and commissioned a state-of-the-art 48,000 square foot production facility for additive manufacturing powders.

To learn more about 6K, please visit www.6Kinc.com