Followed the first public announcement of the new FS301M metal powder bed system last month, Farsoon is proud to announce the first installation of a dual-Laser FS301M system at an end use aviation customer in the U.S.
Being an early adopter of the FS301M, the customer has been co-innovating with Farsoon through the development cycle of the FS301M to create a system that meets the demanding requirements of the aviation industry. Now Farsoon is happy to report that the initial qualification and testing data from the joint process development on the FS301M for Ti6Al4V Titanium shows industry-leading performance for additive and near-wrought properties.
"The material data we're seeing on the 301 is at the top tier in the industry,” The FS301M aviation customer stated after reviewing the testing result, “With surface roughness below 5um Ra, static performance at or above wrought, and fatigue performance within the order of magnitude of wrought with as-built surface, the 301 finally allows for economical production without compromising part quality."
In the rapidly developing additive industry, Farsoon strives to bringing the latest technological innovation into the high-performance FS301M production system.
High Productivity: Dual-laser scanning strategy and calibration algorithms improve build efficiency by precisely controlling both lasers’ operation, achieving intelligent distribution of each laser while building a single large part or multiple smaller parts (figure 1). Both lasers have full coverage of the build area and can be set to use only one laser per part. This allows for reduced certification burden for the aerospace industry by constraining each part to a single laser. Industry leading signal communication speeds and robust recoating speeds ensures minimal delay between each layer of the build. An increased build cylinder volume, as compared to previous generations of machines, measures 305 × 305 × 400mm and is well suited for larger-sized applications and improved productivity within a single build. Excellent air tightness design of FS301M enables extreme oxygen content as low as 10 ppm during the build process, ensuring powder quality consistency for the best quality of the printed part.
Flexibility: Farsoon has introduced advanced linear scanning strategies for optimal and uniform energy control throughout the build area, achieving support-free parts at angles as low as 15 degree (figure 3). This offers industry customers increased printing success rate and flexibility in design, especially parts with overhanging surfaces or internal structures. This low angle of production without the needs for supports also improved as-built surface quality with less requires for post processing.
Enhanced user operation: With an integrated powder-loading dock on the FS301M, the material adding operation can be accomplished under an inert gas atmosphere for streamlined workflow and improved environmental safety. A shared material container is used during loading, unloading and the sieving procedures offering more convenient powder-handling and transportation between the stations (figure 4, left). Convenient features such as pre-heated base plates, electric leveling, and advanced vision systems allow for more robust process and quality control.
Compact machine design: The FS301M features a machine footprint as small as 3.64 square meters with an integrated, long-lasting filtration system with operation time up to 1500 hours. With designated operational access from only the front and rear, the FS301M achieves one of the most compact installation space requirements among similar sized powder-bed based systems on the market. In an additive factory setting, the FS301M allows for high density layouts with minimal side distance (figure 4, right), in order to achieve maximum throughput yield per floor area at an economical additive production cost.
FS301M Beta system is now open for early adopter program application.
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