Farsoon Technologies Global Team at Formnext 2019
November 19th 2019, 9am — Farsoon first opened it booth at Formnext 2019, the 100-square-meter place was soon packed that more tables and seats have to be ordered. Visitors from a wide range of industries were impressed by Farsoon’s innovative machines:
1）FS301M: first introduced in October this year, it perfectly showcased to be a user-friendly and industry-oriented metal system. With intensive co-development with an US aviation customer, many optimizations have been integrated for top-quality production and ease of use. With 2 lasers option, FS301M is able to ensure high-productivity and performance by operating on a 30 x 30 cm² build area with full coverage by each laser. Many industry-focused features, for instance, the new dust filter with a lifetime about 1500 hours of operations reduce the fabrication cost per part; the small footprint of the machine enables a higher unit-area yield in series fabrication, while keeping flexibility of powder change. With the first installation of FS301M at US aerospace customer now just announced, who wants to be the first in Europe?
First FS301M system installed at US Aerospace Customer
2）Flight-HT403P: our fastest, and open plastic laser sintering machine has been receiving high attention from industry. At Formnext booth, many visitors stated that there are impressed by the small feature resolution of the black parts. The name “Flight” Technology has been invented from the powerful laser source — installation of a 500W Fiber Laser instead of a 100W CO2-laser — making it the basis of this innovation. The Flight-HT403P machine is able to reliably fabricate parts with fine details and wall thickness smaller than 0.3mm. Meanwhile, with the ultra-fast scanning speed enables 2 builds production per day — this throughput capacity showed industry visitors of the possibility of the true economical production. Now with the beta-testing has started at Rapid Manufacturing AG in Switzerland, Alain Stebler, CEO of Rapid Manufacturing, invited potential customers to visit his facilities to see the machine in operation. He welcomes to receive inquiries on parts fabricated on this machine with PA12-like powder.
Rapid Manufacturing AG announced beta-testing of Flight-HT403P with Farsoon.
3）FS421M: the continuous additive manufacturing system (CAMS) for metals was introduced to the market more than a year ago. FalconTech, the leading aerospace service bureau in China, visited Farsoon booth and explained to potential customers in Europe that they tested the machine for about 1 year, installed in total 3 already and is convinced to install more to meet the increasing demand for production capacity. The high part quality, the automated powder feed and the cartridges operation ensures efficiency and repeatability of the fabricated parts. So far FalconTech is satisfied with the FS421M comparing with another similar size machine in-house.
4）HT1001P: our largest system for plastic parts production. Again, many visitors stopped at our booth, when seeing the 1-meter-sized parts. The innovation of continuous operation again significantly reduces costs of parts fabrication. The automated process increases reproducibility of part properties, also reduced the need of human operation. Farsoon recently announced that beta-phase has been finished by FKM and Modellbau Kurz operate and these machines are ready for fully commercial production. “After the validation by beta-customers the HT1001P machine is now fully commercialized with an upgraded set-up.” Dr. Dirk Simon, the Managing Director of Farsoon Europe GmbH, presented the reality of continuous additive manufacturing on TCT Introducing Stage.
Many journalists followed our invitation to our Press Conference, where Farsoon reported about the current global organization, its strategy with distribution and sales agent partnerships — for instance Awexim in Poland and MAQCenter in Spain. Moreover, Farsoon significantly increases number of Service Engineers in the regions, with intensive training. The journalists listened very carefully when Farsoon, for the first time, informed in public on its facts: since 2012, Farsoon sold more than 400 systems, thereof 300 China domestic (with the split between plastic and metal sales is about 50/50) and 100 outside China. Farsoon informed on its financial strengths and the plans to continue investing into its globalization. Farsoon’s aim is to push beyond boundaries with staying highly innovative. 40% of the employees of Farsoon work for R&D purposes in mechanical, optical, electric, material and application. The “Open for Industry” philosophy attracts many industrial partners. This approach will make Farsoon step by step stronger to become a global leader in industrial powder bed fusion systems, while keeping the No. 1 position in China.
(Left) Farsoon Service Engineer installing FS421M at customer site. (Middle) Farsoon announces HT1001P completes beta-testing and enter full commercialization. (Right) Farsoon press conference with industry medias, hosted by Dr. Dirk Simon, MD of Farsoon Europe, Peilin Hou, GM of Farsoon, and Don Xu, Director of Global Business
Siemens, on their press conference, announced the partnership with Farsoon: A strategic partnership agreement was signed in September this year with Farsoon, the leading Chinese manufacturer in the Powder Bed Fusion technology segment. “The cooperation already showed the first integration in the new Farsoon metal system FS301M,” stated Mr. Peilin Hou, General Manager and Jack Cheng, Deputy General Manager of Farsoon Technologies, both when gave a presentation on Siemens booth explaining the various dimensions of this partnership, “The FS301M was equipped with Siemens automation technology from the Digital Enterprise portfolio. In addition, Siemens and Farsoon are working together on high-performance end-to-end software and “digital twin” solutions for Farsoon’s open platform, industrial AM systems.”
(Left) Farsoon presentation at Siemens booth. (Right) Gearbox Mount: First collaboration part of Farsoon & Siemens.
Also, we are glad to be informed by many visitors, of them saw appealing parts fabricated on Farsoon machines displayed in the booths of our industrial partners. For instance, Lubrizol showed TPU-parts after announcing that Farsoon complements their partner network. Very interesting were also the part shown in BASF booth: after topology optimization BASF and Daimler can show the engine bracket, a fully functional part with very high requirements on mechanical strength and heat resistance. Another flame-retardant flow optimized air duct part with BASF Ultrasint PA6 FR was also fabricated on Farsoon machine.
(Left) Lubrizol TPU testing parts produced on Farsoon laser sintering systems. (Right) Topology optimized Engine Bracket by Daimler, produced on Farsoon plastic laser sintering system with BASF Ultrasint PA6 powder for functional testing.
Farsoon presented the extended carousel of springs for the demonstration of the various materials which can be used in the open-material platform Farsoon machines. On the plastic side, Farsoon machines work with 10 different classes of plastics with about 90 powder grades from various suppliers.
The academic research on additive manufacturing is very important to increase the understanding of extended material portfolio and specific industry applications in additive. Dr. Michael Wu, Advanced Materials Manufacturing Project Leader at Solar Applied Materials Technology Corp., together with Cheng-Tse Wu, PhD candidate from Process Metallurgy Research labs at University of Toronto, gave a presentation titled “NiTa Alloy Sputtering Target Built by Selective Laser Melting for Hard Disc Application” in TCT Conference, showcased a customized material development project in semi-conductor industry, which is only possible working with Farsoon’s open platform systems, and strong technical support from Farsoon application team.
(Left) Material spring carousel displayed at Farsoon booth. (Right) SAMT presenting at TCT Conference at Formnext 2019
Formnext has been more than just an event, it also offers the best opportunity for Farsoon global integration, introducing new members to the team while exchange latest company innovation. This highly-efficient team work ensures our customers with faster, best-in-class communication and service on Farsoon additive machines.
Stay tuned and keep innovating with Farsoon towards industrial additive manufacturing!
