Farsoon Technologies, the Changsha-based (China) industrial laser powder-bed-fusion system manufacturer, announced that at end of June 2021, the total installed base of Farsoon 3-D printers at customer sites had reached more than 500.
Jack Cheng, Farsoon’s deputy general manager, said: “Although our metal 3-D printer product line was only commercialised in 2015, with the rapid rise of the civil aerospace industry, as well as its manufacturing ecosystem, we now see the metal and polymer systems contributing an equal split among our 500-plus installations.”
Don Xu, the director of Farsoon’s Global Business Group, said: “We are seeing an increasing demand for large-volume functional parts, especially in aerospace and automotive industries, using specialised materials in order to achieve the specified performance, mechanical properties and reliability under a variety of operational conditions.
“In order to addressing customers’ ‘pain points’ regarding size, productivity and quality, Farsoon has introduced the multi-laser large-format metal systems FS421M, FS621M, as well as the latest FS721M. So far, Farsoon has installed more than 80 large-format metal systems for aerospace and automotive applications.”
Mr Xu says the service bureaus industry has been faced with challenges relating to size, quality, speed, productivity, flexibility and tight margins. In 2017 Farsoon added a new line of machines under the ‘Continuous Additive Manufacturing Solution (CAMS) Concept’ including the largest plastic PBF (powder bed fusion) machine HT1001P featuring an industry-leading build size of 225 litres.
In 2019, Farsoon introduced its high-speed ‘Flight’ plastic laser sintering technology powered by fibre laser. By end of June 2021, Farsoon’s cumulative installed base at service bureaus alone had exceeded 150 systems.
In the first half of 2021, Farsoon has also been rapidly growing its teams from 300 to more than 400 employees globally.