Oct 12, 2017 | By Tess
German additive manufacturing company FIT AG is expanding its industrial 3D printing capacity with the purchase of five EOS M 400-4 metal AM systems. By investing in EOS 3D printers, FIT AG is not only aiming to increase its production of parts for the automotive, motorsport, medical, and aerospace sectors, but is bringing German 3D printer manufacturer EOS on as a “strategic supplier.”
Based in Lupburg, Germany, FIT AG is one of the country’s leading additive manufacturing solutions companies, and has worked with companies as established as construction giant Caterpillar for the implementation of industrial 3D printing.
The company, which has over two decades of experience with additive technologies, offers its clients a diverse range of 3D printing solutions and technologies—which now includes five EOS industrial metal 3D printers.
The newly acquired 3D printers will be integrated into a 4,200 m² FIT AG facility which will specialize in serial production using additive manufacturing. The facility is expected to open by the end of 2017 and will mark FIT AG’s second additive manufacturing factory (following the FIT Factory which opened in April 2016).
“The new generation of EOS systems not only convinced us with the outstanding quality of the components it produces, but above all with its open interfaces, which allow us to seamlessly integrate these machines in our quality assurance concepts—a further big step towards achieving the industrial-scale Additive Manufacturing of components,” said Carl Fruth, CEO of FIT AG.
Let’s take a look at what kind of system FIT AG has invested in: the EOS M 400-4 is a metal 3D printing system that utilizes four lasers to precisely sinter a bed of metal powder. Having four lasers instead of one allows the machine to achieve a much higher productivity rate than single-laser systems.
Additionally, with a print capacity of 400 x 400 x 400 mm, the metal 3D printer boasts a relatively large build volume making it more than suitable for manufacturing high quality industrial parts. FIT AG says it plans to “increase the diversity of the materials it can process in-house” using the five new 3D printing systems, which will allow it to up its overall production.
Dr. Adrian Keppler, CEO of EOS GmbH, commented on the purchase, saying: “I am delighted that over 20 years of successful collaboration between EOS and FIT AG in the field of Additive Manufacturing of polymer parts are now being extended to include metal components…The investment in five EOS M 400-4 systems shows that our solutions are ideally suitable for an integrated large-scale AM production scenario.”
FIT AG also recently invested in Berlin-based startup GEFERTEC through the integration of its 3DMP additive welding process. When announcing the purchase in March 2017, Fruth stated that FIT AG was expecting to implement the first applications through 3DMP within the year.
GEFERTEC’s 3DMP technology essentially combines an arc welding process with CAD-data and metal wire to produce complex metal parts layer by layer. The company says by using metal wire, 3DMP has a rate of almost 100 per cent for material utilization.
Posted in 3D Printer Company
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