Sponsored By

Chinese 3D additive manufacturing (AM) player Farsoon Technologies and Airbus (Beijing) Engineering Centre Co., LTD (ABEC) have signed a collaboration contract that establishes a joint research and development program for polymer AM in civil aviation. This marks Airbus’ first collaboration with a Chinese company in the said field.

Stephen Moore

March 4, 2019

2 Min Read
Airbus establishes R&D partnership with Chinese firm for polymer additive manufacturing solutions

Front (left to right): Dr. Xu Xiaoshu, Founder and Chairman of Farsoon; Michel Tran Van, General Manager of Airbus Beijing. Back  (left to right): Bo Yuan, Don Xu, Jack Cheng, Zhiuxing Lu, Ming Lei, Miguel L. San Gregorio, Li Chen.

Airbus (Beijing) team visits Farsoon 3D printing showroom.

Based on this collaboration, Airbus and Farsoon will combine and share their collective expertise to research and develop a high-performance polymer material for civil aircraft for deployment on Farsoon's AM systems. Furthermore, Farsoon will fine-tune and optimize processing parameters for the new material on its open platform systems, which offers users full access to processing parameters; while Airbus will validate the properties and performance according to the needs of civil aviation requirements.

"We are very excited to start this R&D collaboration with Airbus. As a leading industrial AM solution provider, Farsoon has been pushing towards the transition of AM applications from prototyping to manufacturing." said Dr. Xu Xiaoshu. "We believe AM technology will be increasingly used in aerospace and aviation manufacturing. In the future, by joining hands with Airbus, Farsoon will be able to contribute to the full workflow for AM production in civil aviation."

"This is the first time for Airbus to cooperate with a Chinese company in the polymer AM industry. Airbus has been [keeping pace] with development of AM technology, and we are impressed by Farsoon's capability of innovation and industrial focus," commented Michel Tran Van: "Airbus is looking for more than the performance of new materials. We need to keep in mind what industrializing AM needs, including workflow development, cost management, industrial manufacturing capabilities and speed. With the same goal of industrialization, I look forward to the R&D results of this collaboration, and I believe we will carry out more cooperation in the future."

Farsoon is a global manufacturer and supplier of industrial level polymer and metal laser sintering systems. The company claims to be the leading supplier of industrial AM technology in China with increasing growth in the international market.

In 2017, Farsoon released the first of a new series of AM machines under the Continuous Additive Manufacturing Solution (CAMS-Continuous Additive Manufacturing System) system, and established Farsoon Technologies-Americas in Austin, TX, USA. In 2018, Farsoon Europe GmbH was established in Stuttgart, Germany to expand direct operations to Europe.

About the Author(s)

Stephen Moore

Stephen has been with PlasticsToday and its preceding publications Modern Plastics and Injection Molding since 1992, throughout this time based in the Asia Pacific region, including stints in Japan, Australia, and his current location Singapore. His current beat focuses on automotive. Stephen is an avid folding bicycle rider, often taking his bike on overseas business trips, and is a proud dachshund owner.

Sign up for the PlasticsToday NewsFeed newsletter.

You May Also Like