Real-world Applications: Reimagine Automotive Manufacturing with Farsoon 3D Printing – AMS Speaker Spotlight

The automotive industry is a highly competitive and dynamic field, and manufacturers face numerous challenges in order to remain successful, some of the major challenges in the industry include complex and highly customized parts, rapid design to marketing time, cost control, and supply chain management. Yet all of these just so happen to be the advantages of additive manufacturing. With the ability to grow complex geometries, the additive manufacturing process is digitally driven with reduced need for tooling, molds, as well as downtime, and as the technology progresses, limitations such as oversized parts and lack of versatile materials are being solved with the current generation of printers.

At Farsoon Technologies, we strive to produce the best production-oriented solutions for our customer’s needs through our truly open laser powder-bed fusion 3D printing platforms.

As FAW-Volkswagen ventures into the additive manufacturing space and effort to keep up with the increasing product line and engineering demands, the company has partnered with Farsoon to fulfill their needs. Farsoon’s HT403P was able to provide the FAW-Volkswagen engineering team with unique in-house design-manufacturing expertise to empower their innovation as well as improved manufacturing quality and speed.

Take for example this bracket for bumper guides (figure 1). This part required a small batch of 30 pieces for functional testing, not only was the Farsoon laser powder-bed process much faster and more economical to produce, it also showed excellent impact resistance during the loading test. As of 2021, FAW-Volkswagen has reached a 5000 part-production count annually on Farsoon’s systems.

Henvvei Automotive is a technology innovator specializing in customized intelligent LED Matrix and Laser headlight design and manufacturing. Custom parts fitting, development iterations, and cost control are the top of the challenges Henvvei faces. With a continuous dedication to innovation, the Henvvei design team started leveraging various industrial additive manufacturing solutions as a tool for both R&D and production in this field. Eventually decided to invest in additive manufacturing with the purchase of the Farsoon FLIGHT HT403P system for their production. Thanks to the high production speed of Farsoon’s FLIGHT plastic laser sintering technology and the expanded build envelope, these prototypes can be produced in one single batch in less than one day – making the verification process simple and swift.

The automotive industry is no stranger when it comes to making large parts. The traditional ways to produce prototypes are CNC and Silicone Molding. Each with its strengths and limitations, but when it comes to cost, production speed, and complex structures, additive manufacturing possesses obvious advantages over the two.

Farsoon Technologies in collaboration with SAPW Automotive Technology Co. has printed a single-piece polymer automotive HVAC (Heating Ventilating Air Conditioning) unit on the Farsoon HT1001P CAMS® (Continuous Additive Manufacturing Solution) system. Equipped with a build cartridge size of 39.4 in x 19.7 in x 17.7 in (1000mm x 500mm x 450mm), The HT1001P CAMS® not only can produce large single parts at a rapid speed which eliminates the process of assembling and polishing the jointed parts, but it can also support different materials that are suitable for functional testing and prototyping under our open-platform philosophy.

Farsoon considers material to be a part of its core competency. Between Farsoon produced materials and 3rd party material partners, Farsoon systems can support an array of engineering materials such as reinforced carbon fiber, glass bead, mineral fiber materials, as well as the latest PP for the auto industry. Thanks to the high-temperature-capable machine configurations, Farsoon plastic laser powder-bed fusion systems are able to process PA6, PPS, and PEKK powders delivering excellent mechanical and thermal properties making it well-suited for functional prototyping and direct end-use parts for wide range of technical applications.

Echoing the same ideology with the comprehensive polymer solutions. Farsoon also offers extensive metal LPBF(Laser Powder Bed Fusion) systems and a full library of validated material parameter sets. To address the challenges in metal manufacturing focusing on high-value, customized auto production, Farsoon offers large-scale systems such as the FS721M with up to 8 lasers, optimized for the production of large parts which favor one axis, which is especially valued in the auto industry. With a build volume of 720 x 420 x 420mm, it supports flexible build requirements and high-volume series production at a reduced cost.

On the medium to small framed side, the FS301M and FS200M are popular options due to their ease of use, reduced operational cost, and stability. Both of these systems feature an optimized footprint which enables a high-density layout with minimal distance between machines to achieve maximum throughput per floor area at an economical cost.

For more information visit: www.farsoon-gl.com

Farsoon is participating at Additive Manufacturing Strategies, taking place in New York City from February 7-9, 2023. Jim Braddick, Director of North American Sales for Farsoon Americas, will be taking part in Session 3, Panel 1: AM in the Auto Industry on February 8. Register for your ticket to attend here.