FIT invests heavily in laser 3D printing systems for metal parts

By OEM Update Editorial November 12, 2017 1:07 pm IST

EOS Systems at FIT AG Source FIT AG

Additive Manufacturing (AM) specialist FIT AG is expanding its industrial 3D Printing capacities and investing in five EOS M 400-4 systems.

The EOS solutions will be part of a factory with 4,200 sq.m. of floor space, specially designed for serial production using industrial 3D Printing technology. EOS is expected to be a strategic supplier to FIT AG, which is planning to use EOS systems to manufacture products mainly for the automotive industry, the world of motorsport, the medical technology sector, and the aerospace industry.

As a specialist manufacturer of prototypes and pilot series, FIT AG offers its customers a broad portfolio of AM solutions that feature short lead times as well as software and hardware solutions. Both national and international companies from numerous industries rely on FIT AG to supply them with optimised, additively manufactured components more quickly and with greater efficiency. In turn, FIT AG is relying on the 3D Printing solutions of EOS, in order to meet the continually growing market demand for high-quality products. EOS is the world’s leading technology supplier in the field of industrial 3D Printing of metals and polymers.

Seamless AM integration in industrial manufacturing
The newly purchased EOS M 400-4 systems are equipped with four lasers to ensure greater productivity and excellent part quality. At the same time, the system features a particularly large build platform of 400 x 400 x 400 mm, making the EOS M 400-4 the ideal machine for manufacturing high-quality metal components on an industrial scale. With these five new systems, FIT AG is looking to increase the diversity of the materials it can process in-house and thereby boost its overall manufacturing capacity. FIT AG aims to automate its processes and therefore drive the future of large-scale industrial Additive Manufacturing.

Accordingly, building on a wealth of experience gathered over decades, in April 2016 FIT AG began operating the first factory specially designed for Additive Manufacturing – the FIT Factory – where it already deploys a number of EOS systems. By the end of 2017, FIT AG plans to establish an additional AM factory on its AM campus, where the five new EOS M 400-4 systems will be initially installed.

Carl Fruth, CEO of FIT AG explained, “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.”

Dr. Adrian Keppler, CEO of EOS GmbH, stated, “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.”