Farsoon’s large-volume polymer 3D printer debuts in US
The new HT1001P will be beta tested by two US companies this year
Capping off an acceleration in its global expansion strategy, Farsoon Technologies’s newest polymer PBF 3D printer, the Farsoon HT1001P, a large-volume production machine branded as a “continuous additive manufacturing solution (CAMS)” system, is now ready to be beta tested by two US companies.
Like all Farsoon machines, the HT1001P is an open system that allows users to freely select materials and adjust parameters and configurations to suit their requirements. With a build size of 1,000 × 500 × 450 mm, the HT1001P’s multi-laser scanning capabilities allow for the production of single or multiple assembly parts in high-performance materials due to the build chamber’s ability to control temperatures up to 220°C. While the machine won’t be available for purchase until early 2019, two beta customers in the U.S. have been selected to install the machine later this year.
Chuck Kennedy, Farsoon’s vice president of operations in the U.S., has reported that improvements are still being made to the Farsoon HT1001P, including three options that each enhance automation and speed. The first option is a preheat build station that enables faster turnover between powder cartridges. Option two, which Farsoon is still testing, will offer a modular cooling station that actively cools down the powder cake—a process that, when allowed to happen passively, can take as long as 20 hours to cool down for a part that takes 20 hours to build.
Kennedy also noted that Farsoon’s current 403P series system has the capability to cool down the powder cake outside the system, but says the Farsoon HT1001P—which the company says will be on display at Formnext this November—will be much less dependent on operator intervention. Finally, Kennedy says that option three will offer improved automation on de-powdering, self-mixing and material recycling. Kennedy estimates that option three—which he says represents “a completely closed-loop powder-handling system”—will be available in mid-2019.
Farsoon’s founder, Dr. Xu Xiaoshu, is an additive manufacturing pioneer who served as technical director at the industry’s first laser sintering company in the early 1990s. The company’s name is said to derive from Xu’s sentiment that digitalization is coming fast as well as a quote attributed to him about “traveling far, soon.”
