On the eve of TCT Asia 2023, which runs from 12-14th September 2023 at the NECC Shanghai, TCT Magazine has caught up with Chinese 3D printing OEM Farsoon.
Farsoon has traditionally used China's leading additive manufacturing event to debut its latest product developments, with bigger and better machines regularly being introduced to the thousands of TCT Asia attendees.
This year looks to be no different, with Farsoon confirming it is set to launch two new pieces of hardware across its metal and polymer additive manufacturing offerings.
Below, Farsoon's Global Marketing Manager Chenlu Fang previews those new products, while also assessing the biggest trends in the Chinese additive manufacturing market, detailing the latest developments to its Flight technology, and hinting at what's to come from Farsoon moving forward.
Register to attend TCT Asia 2023 and visit Farsoon on booth K15.
TCT: Can you tell us what products and applications you will be showcasing at this year’s TCT Asia in Shanghai?
CF: Farsoon will be announcing a new 16 lasers, large-format metal powder bed fusion system on the first day of TCT Asia. Its XY build envelope will be in ⌀1500mm range with a significant Z height. We will also be exhibiting the FS350M-4 metal system, which we announced earlier this year in the China market. It is targeted for high speed, economic metal production.
On the polymer side, Farsoon will be showcasing the Flight HT 1001P-4 system. We will also debut a new PMS - powder management system. This system is fully compatible with 403P system cartridges. The new PMS system offers a more automated and cleaner workflow for powder handling process and has integrated the full workflow from part cake breakout, sieving, mixing and loading.
In terms of applications, we will highlight large-sized metal components; moulds and tooling; medical implants; oversized automotive functional parts in glass bead reinforced PA6 and PA12 materials; 3C industries & robotic applications; and athletic and sports applications.
TCT: Farsoon recently broke ground on a new R&D headquarters in Xiangjiang New District – what will this mean for the company and its customers?
CF: The new R&D headquarters will offer an enhanced infrastructure for our future innovation and manufacturing. Farsoon can house increased number of machines for development, integration and testing. It will also allow us to offer more diverse technical training, benchmarking and project-based batch series production for industrial customers.
TCT: At last year’s TCT Asia, Farsoon announced the development of its quad-laser Flight Technology on the HT1001P 3D printing system. What update can you provide us on the interest in this technology?
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CF: Glad you asked about this. We’ve been working around Flight HT1001P platform on many aspects:
- Machine-related fine tunings: Last year, the Flight HT1001P was released via a beta program. We have been working on a number of tuning and updates on key components and process parameters for improved material plasticity and productivity.
- Material development: We are currently working on a new PA12 co-polymer with higher ductility, balanced XYZ properties, outstanding EAB, that is also very easy to breakout. This material is currently under beta-testing with a few industry customers in China. It is expected to be introduced globally next year.
- Third party material collaboration: With the unique characters of fibre lasers, we have tested a number of engineering materials from our material partners: TPU, PK, PA11 with ESD and CF reinforced - enabling customer to produce end-use applications with desired materials.
TCT: What would you say is the most significant trend in the AM industry today?
CF: [On the polymer side], I think that, at least in polymer L-PBF, material development and availability has been on a steady increase over the last 3-5 years and continues to trend upwards. Early on, the main material options on the market were "neat" or unfilled PA11 and Nylon12 materials. But as the technology has evolved with the needs of the industry, we have started to see new additives to existing materials (i.e. PA11 FR-flame retardant, Nylon 12 glass, mineral, carbon fiber filled) as well as completely new materials like TPU, TPC, PA6, PPS, and PEEK/PAEK to expand the technology out of rapid prototyping and into industry sectors like automotive, aerospace, footwear, and medical. Material development has really been a driving force in the additive industry.
In the metal field, we are seeing a major trend of custom-built machines (requiring specific build size, and optic systems, scan strategies, process, etc) running specific materials towards application. Our technical team will need to work with them from multiple aspects from machine design, process development to application. Also metal additive manufacturing has also grown into the 3C industry which significantly drives production yield, cost-efficiency, and large-scale factory layout. Future trend will be to integrate multiple metal 3D printing system in an automated production line rather than operating one single system.
TCT: Are there any trends you feel are unique to the market in China?
CF: The technology innovation speed is remarkable in Chinese 3D printing market; In comparison of many major international brands has not updated their products in recent years.
Key aspects of trend in China market:
- Increased build envelope size
- Efficiency: increasing numbers of lasers
- Innovative process developments targeting higher production speed and niche materials
[There is also the] increasing 3D printing industrialisation in the consumer products market:
- High-end sports goods (pls refer to Farsoon’s application of metal 3DP golf club case study brief below)
- Metal Mold & tooling for shoe industry (Farsoon’s customer has produced over 100K pairs of athletic shoes products using 3D printed shoe molds)
- 3C industry (computer, communication and consumer electronics), especially smart phone & watches
- Wearable products
There are more new machine models from Chinese manufacturers introduced every year targeting domestic industries. With the advances in cost-performance and service, local brands are taking over the majority market shares in China.
TCT: Can you share a recent successful customer application story with us?
CF: I’m glad to share our latest success story from our customer Futai Technology, who is specialised in high-end athletic devices [which are] manufactured using titanium material. With current manufacturing capability of 1 million parts per year, Futai offer a comprehensive solution from product development, manufacturing, post processing to services.
Futai has installed a fleet of Farsoon metal 3D printers (FS200M and FS273M) for their largest application - a titanium golf club. In addition to their standard products, Futai also offer customised solutions and small batch production using 3D printing. Futai is now able to deliver over 15K golf clubs per year to global customers in Japan, Korea, Europe and U.S.
TCT: Like many industries, the AM sector has experienced some turbulence over the last few years – what is your outlook on the industry for the rest of 2023 and beyond?
CF: With the increasing application of 3D printing in the market, the advantage of the technology has been well accepted by the end user. With our observation the overall 3D printing industry will keep high-speed development during the next few years, especially in the volume production cases.
The 3D printing technology, products and service will focus around productivity, quality, and cost-control for industrial-scale applications.
TCT: Finally, what can you tell us about the evolution of Farsoon and its product offering moving forward?
CF: Farsoon will continue to learn, and grow with the market, to develop industry & customer specific systems to meet their needs.
Our future systems will have a clear focus on increasing throughput and reliability for repeatable parts; offering customers a true advanced manufacturing tool for industrial end-use applications.
