Farsoon announces first installation of its dual-laser metal AM system at US aerospace customer
November 18, 2019
Following the launch of Farsoon’s FS301M metal Additive Manufacturing system last month, the company has announced the first installation of a dual-laser version of the machine at an un-named aerospace customer in the USA.
Being an early adopter of the machine, it was stated that the customer has been working with Farsoon through the development cycle to create a system that meets the demanding requirements of the aviation industry. Farsoon added 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 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.”
The dual-laser scanning strategy and calibration algorithms are said to 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. In the FS301M, both lasers have full coverage of the build area and can be set to use only one laser per part.
This is reported to allow 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 × 400 mm and is well suited for larger-sized applications and improved productivity within a single build. The 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.
