Faustson Tool Expands Into Additive Manufacturing

Concept Laser Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Concept Laser GmbH (Lichtenfels, Germany), a pioneer in the field of laser melting with metals, has announced the installation of the M2 cusing Multilaser metal additive manufacturing system at Faustson Tool Corporation (Arvada, CO), a high precision machine shop that specializes in the aerospace, aeronautics, defense, energy, medical and semiconductor industries.

“From our inception, we have been committed to being a pioneer in the industry by utilizing new leap-frog technology and pushing the bounds of a traditional machine shop,” said Alicia Svaldi, the president of Faustson Tool. “While conducting our in-depth research on additive manufacturing processes available on the market, the LaserCUSING® technology from Concept Laser was the best fit.”

“Staying at the forefront of technology is critical, not only to stay competitive, but to provide our customers with the best manufacturing solutions available on the market.  Their M2 cusing Multilaser system with 2 x 400 W lasers provides another depth to our manufacturing services,” said Heidi Hostetter, the vice president of Faustson Tool. “There is a tremendous emphasis on UAV and defense in Colorado. As new technologies, such as metal additive manufacturing came on to the market, our customers began requesting services that could only be produced on an additive manufacturing system. The technology we found from them was stronger then other metal additive manufacturing technology available, offered flexible parameters, and fit into our current process seamlessly. The multilaser technology offers throughput similar to higher-powered systems (e.g. 1 kW), while maintaining the high-precision and superior finish available with lower power settings.”

The company introduced the redesign of the M2 cusing with multilaser option at the end of 2014. With a new look and fully integrated structure, the M2 is equipped with a new filter design and increased surface area of 20 square meters. The M2 cusing Multilaser is available with 2 x 200 W lasers, or alternatively with 2 x 400 W lasers, and makes use of Concept Laser’s improved segmented exposure strategy for laser melting of metals.

The dual-laser configuration increases the machine’s throughput by up to 1.8 times over that of its single-laser counterpart. The increase is dependent on the geometry of the corresponding component. These solutions with multilaser technology are interesting to digital service centers with a tendency to industrial mass production.

“We are very excited about our partnership with Faustson Tool,” said Zach Murphree, PhD, regional manager and technical sales engineer for Concept Laser. “Companies like them represent the next step in the maturation of the additive metals industry, where the technology is gaining acceptance within production facilities, not just OEMs. The M2 cusing Multilaser system is the result of 15 years of continued metal additive development at Concept Laser and is accelerating the acceptance within the industry, and they are on the leading edge of this wave.”

www.conceptlaserinc.com

www.faustson.com