Formlabs
Canvas Category Machinery : Additive Manufacturing : 3D Printer
Formlabs is expanding access to digital fabrication, so anyone can make anything. Headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts with offices in Germany, France, Japan, China, Singapore, Hungary, and North Carolina, Formlabs is the professional 3D printer of choice for engineers, designers, manufacturers, dental and medical professionals, and decision makers around the globe. Formlabs products include the Form 3, Form 3B, and Form 3L, powered by Low Force Stereolithography (LFS)™ 3D printing, Form 2 SLA 3D printer, Form Wash and Form Cure post-processing solutions, Fuse 1 SLS 3D printer, and Factory Solutions manufacturing solution. Formlabs also develops its own suite of high-performance 3D printing materials that continue to push the boundaries for 3D printing, as well as best-in-class 3D printing software.
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How Brose Leverages SLA and SLS Technology to Bolster Automotive Production
Brose’s steady growth and their long-term successful partnerships with these OEMs are due in part to the company’s commitment to continuous innovation and improvement. 3D printing is at the core of multiple initiatives in Brose’s design and end-use manufacturing processes and has helped Brose adapt and respond to all the changes in the fast-paced automotive industry.
Prototyping as an application is a perfect — and familiar — fit for 3D printing. While Brose does employ a range of fused deposition modeling (FDM), SLA, and SLS 3D printers for prototypes, their volumes aren’t necessarily what one might expect for proof of concept parts. For Brose, a typical volume for prototypes is closer to 500 or 1000.
Besides the high cost of ordering several million parts and shipping them overseas, the lead time was several weeks, and the millions of parts that weren’t needed would require storage before ultimately creating waste. Instead of ordering the part, the existing CAD was used to quickly 3D print several hundred of them on Form 4. They were ready in a week, and the solution reduced the overall costs and lead times of the entire project.
The Brose team opened their newly arrived Form 4L large-format resin 3D printer on a Tuesday morning. The setup took just 30 minutes, and soon they were printing large welding setup parts using Fast Model Resin. The parts, divided into four pieces, nearly filled the entire build volume. Despite its size, the Form 4L printed it in under two hours, and after a quick wash and post-cure, the fixture was mounted on the welding robot just 45 minutes later.
Formlabs Announces Form 4L, New Blazing Fast, Large-Format SLA Printer, and Introduces Developer Platform
Formlabs, the leader in 3D printing, announced its new blazing fast, large-format Form 4L and Form 4BL 3D printers as well as the much-anticipated opening of its SLS and SLA platforms to enable users to bring their ideas to life regardless of scale, application, or complexity. Additionally, Formlabs introduced new printer accessories, two new SLS materials, five new highly requested PreForm features, and new post-processing solutions to empower users with more scale, throughput, affordability, performance, and control.
Built on the company’s next-generation Low Force Display™ (LFD) print engine, Form 4 delivers unmatched reliability with a 99% print success rate compared to other SLA 3D printers. These benefits, combined with a build volume nearly 5x the size of Form 4, allow Form 4L users to solve big problems and print smaller parts at high volume.
Ford harnesses Formlabs SLA & SLS 3D printing technology to prototype Electric Explorer vehicle parts
Ford was one of the first beta users of Formlabs’ Form 4, deploying the technology at its Ford Cologne facilities in Germany, where its engineers also have access to a Form 3L and Fuse 1+ 30W machine.
Among the parts to be prototyped with Formlabs 3D printing technology are a complex charging port, a cover for the charging port, a rearview mirror assembly, dashboard parts and exterior features. The company also 3D printed insert moulds for the injection moulding of two rubber components, required in the door handle design for their damping and insulation capabilities.
Having achieved this success with prototyping, Ford engineers also sought to combine the capabilities of 3D printing with injection moulding to produce crash test parts. These components must be made from the same material and process as in mass production, meaning the parts were always going to be manufactured with injection moulding. Ford saw the potential, however, in leveraging 3D printing for rapid tooling, producing the mould inserts for the rubber door handle assembly parts in weeks rather than months.
Formlabs Acquires Micronics to Further Advance Accessible SLS 3D Printing
Formlabs, the leader in 3D printing, announces the acquisition of Micronics, the Wisconsin-based 3D printing company, to continue paving the way for accessible SLS 3D printing. With the acquisition, the Micronics founders and team will join Formlabs in the company’s shared mission to make SLS 3D printing accessible for product designers, engineers, innovators, and other makers around the world.
Micronics is a new 3D printing company that announced its first desktop SLS 3D printer, Micron, on Kickstarter in June 2024. The printer is designed to deliver the strength and precision of SLS 3D printing technology in a compact form factor for detailed prototypes and durable end-use products. As the leader in SLS 3D printing with its Fuse 1 Series printers accounting for more than half of the world-wide powder bed fusion printers sold, Formlabs was attracted to Micronics for its shared focus on powerful and accessible 3d printing and demonstration of engineering excellence, which will enable Formlabs to accelerate its SLS 3D printing capabilities. As the first choice for engineers, designers, manufacturers, and decision-makers around the world, Formlabs continuously expands its ecosystem with the tools that make it possible for anyone to bring their ideas to life.
From Autodesk CEO to Tinkering with Autonomous Cars, 3D Printing & Nuclear Fusion
Formlabs Form 4 Beats Injection Molding Machine in Speed and Quality
How SLS 3D Printing Enabled the Mass Production of a Food Delivery Robot in Six Months
3D Printed Generative Design Drone Chassis
Psyonic makes advanced prosthetics accessible using additive manufacturing
The Ability Hand is designed and manufactured in-house at Psyonic with hybrid manufacturing methods, including 3D printing, injection and silicone moulding, and CNC machines. Psyonic says that the Ability Hand is promising to restore life and mobility back to what it was for patients.
Using the Formlabs SLA 3D printers, Psyonic says that it was able to create an FDA-registered, medicare-covered, industry-defining upper-limb prosthesis from scratch. The machine also allows for collection of customer feedback followed by rapid prototyping in-house to improve design and functionality.
How Lufthansa Technik Uses 3D Printed Tools to Manufacture Escape Route Markings
Lufthansa Technik AG, a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, not only takes care of maintenance and repairs in the aviation sector, but also sells aviation products and aircraft components to large original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), such as Airbus and Boeing. One of these product lines is escape-route markings for the interior of aircraft, which are produced in an innovative way with the help of 3D printed manufacturing aids.
In an interview with Ulrich Zarth, project engineer at Lufthansa Technik AG, we talked about how the company uses these 3D printed tools as consumables in production and how 3D printing makes process optimization more flexible.
How IGESTEK Produces 40% Lighter Automotive Parts
Formlabs Doubles Valuation to $2 Billion with Close of $150 Million Series E Led By SoftBank Vision Fund 2
Formlabs, a leading 3D printing company, today announced it raised a $150 million Series E led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2*, doubling its valuation to $2 billion. Formlabs will use the funds to continue to grow its portfolio of 3D printing technologies, enabling greater mass production and customization, as well as grow its team across its seven offices worldwide.
FourKites Secures $100M Series D Funding from THL, Qualcomm Ventures, Volvo Group and Zebra Technologies
FourKites, the #1 real-time supply chain visibility platform, today announced a new $100 million Series D financing round. The growth financing is led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. (“THL”), with participation from Qualcomm Ventures, LLC, Volvo Group Venture Capital AB and Zebra Technologies, as well as existing investors August Capital, CEAS Investments, Hyde Park Angels, Hyde Park Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures, bringing total capital raised to over $200 million. The funding heralds the advent of a new era in supply chain management, where automated, interconnected and collaborative global supply chains — spanning transportation, warehouses, stores, trucks and more — are powered and optimized by real-time visibility data and machine learning.
Guide to Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D Printing
Selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printing is trusted by engineers and manufacturers across different industries for its ability to produce strong, functional parts.
In this extensive guide, we’ll cover the selective laser sintering process, the different systems and materials available on the market, the workflow for using SLS printers, the various applications, and when to consider using SLS 3D printing over other additive and traditional manufacturing methods.