Aerospace manufacturing service provider Falcontech has announced plans for its Super AM Factory initiative that involve investing in 50 Farsoon metal systems. Falcontech is enhancing manufacturing capacity for series production by adopting more Farsoon machines to current facility, reaching a total of 20 Farsoon metal systems by the end of 2020.
With over seven years’ experience in operating metal laser melting machines from various international brands, Falcontech has developed deep in-house know-how for industrial metal AM production and most recently has started an initiative to expand its capacity and heavily focus on real production with its Super Metal AM factory strategy. Convinced by Farsoon’s technological innovation, quality solutions, and professional service Falcontech entered into a long-term partnership by significantly investing into Farsoon metal systems in 2019. In recognition of this collaboration, the two companies jointly worked on a customised large-format metal AM system for aerospace as well as processing development of Falcontech metal AM powdered materials.
Based on this productive collaboration, Falcontech has scaled up its manufacturing capacity by installing multiple Farsoon metal systems including FS421M, FS301M, FS271M (Fig. 1) and the customised large-format metal system (Fig. 2) with a leading build envelope of up to 620 x 620 x 1100mm. This system provides an excellent production tool for large aerospace applications. With enhanced additive manufacturing capabilities the company has succeeded in supporting the development and series production of spacecraft components in a number of key aerospace projects.
With the joint effort between the two firms significant technical progress has been made including optimal productivity, thin wall structure as small as 0.5mm, improved dimensional-accuracy ±0.5mm/800mm, improved build surface roughness of Ra6.3 microns, and metallurgical quality control from Farsoon system produced parts.
Thanks to the “Open for Industry” philosophy of Farsoon machines, Falcontech is able to operate with a higher degree of flexibility in parameter setting and material development, which contributes to a total of 20 material processing parameters for aerospace applications, including multiple types and grades of titanium alloys, aluminium alloys, and nickel-based superalloys. This also helped Falcontech with the establishment of processing data base for aerospace materials for future development and manufacturing quality control.
“We see an exceptional performance and stability in the Farsoon FS421M metal system via multiple series production jobs since the installation,” says Yu Hai, general manager of Metal AM solution unit at Falcontech, “We are thrilled by the high-quality parts manufactured. With the increasing demand of manufacturing orders, we will further expand our production capacity and improve turnaround time for delivery with more Farsoon metal systems.”