Chinese aerospace manufacturing service provider Falcontech has committed to the installation of 50 Farsoon metal 3D printing systems as it aims to establish a ‘super additive manufacturing' factory.

The company, already a customer of Farsoon, is working to expand its series production capacity and hopes to have a total of 20 Farsoon metal machines up and running by the end of the year.

Since its founding in 2012, Falcontech has established itself as a leading Chinese supplier of metal additively manufactured parts to the aerospace sector, boasting AS9100 certification and extensive expertise in materials, processes and applications through its Metal AM Powder, Metal AM Solution and Advanced Manufacturing Falcontech business units.

It has been working with Farsoon equipment for a number of years and, convinced by the performance of the vendor’s metal powder bed fusion machines, entered into a long-term partnership last year. This partnership has seen the development of a customised large-format metal 3D printing system, designed to produce high-performance aerospace parts to with Falcontech’s metal powders inside a 620 x 620 x 1100 mm build volume.

Falcontech's customised metal additive manufacturing system. 

Already, Falcontech is said to have supplied spacecraft components through a number of projects with this platform, which has the capacity to achieve thin wall structures as small as 0.5mm and improved build surface roughness of Ra6.3 microns. Farsoon’s ‘open for industry’ philosophy is allowing Falcontech to print parts in around 20 different materials, including various grades of titanium alloys, aluminium alloys and nickel-based superalloys, while a processing database of aerospace materials for future development and manufacturing quality control has also been established.

Multiples of the customised machine developed by Farsoon and Falcontech, as well as Farsoon’s FS421M, FS301M and FS271M systems, will make up the 50 metal 3D printing systems set to be installed in Falcontech’s 'super additive manufacturing' facility.

“We are thrilled by the high-quality parts manufactured, taking advantage of the benefits from Farsoon additive manufacturing,” commented Yu Hai, General Manager of the Metal AM Solution Unit at Falcontech. “With the increasing demands of manufacturing orders, Falcontech will further expand our production capacity and improve turnaround time for delivery with more Farsoon metal systems.”

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