FELIXprinters (Booth A66, Hall 12.1) has ironed out a niche for itself as the provider of industry’s most affordable, accurate, repeatable, easy-to-use, and upgradeble AM platforms, and comes to this year’s Formnext with a lot to show and a lot to discuss with attendees.

Building on its recent success at the TCT Exhibition in October, the FELIX booth continues the theme of “Going Dutch”, which will be obvious to visitors as they will see a moving windmill, mini-clogs, and iconic coloured tulips all created in FELIXprinter’s machines. The company is extremely proud of its Dutch heritage, and underpinning every platform that it sells is the fact that it is hand-made in Holland, and exemplifies the characteristic quality of Dutch engineering in general.

Guillaume Feliksdal, co-founder of FELIX says, “While we are having a bit of fun with the ‘Going Dutch’ theme, visitors to our booth will see that our machines are serious industrially focussed AM solutions, and there will be a number of parts on display that show how well adapted our technologies are to complex industrial applications. Everything about FELIX rotates around quality, and we have strict quality controls in house that ensure that once a printer is delivered it works perfectly from the get go. For example, each machine passes a stringent 24 hour quality test at our HQ before it is boxed and released, and we pride ourselves on the fact that all our platforms out perfiom any similarly priced alternatives in terms of robustness, accuracy and repeatability, all of this down to our absolute focus on quality”.

FELIXprinters has an impressive array of AM platforms, and front and centre at Formnext will be the Pro L and Pro XL larger build envelope machines that have been making quite a stir in recent months, and which have been independently reviewed as being the only commercially available AM platforms that can rival the industry-standard Ultimaker machines.

Co-founder Wilgo Feliksdal continues, “We will have a Pro XL working on the booth, so visitors will be able to see the superior nature of the machine, and the impressively sized 144 litre build space. The Pro L and XL machines are extremely versatile, appropriate for numerous industrial end-use applications, and they are synonymous with strength, robustness, and quality of build. We feel that once manufacturers see this machine in action they will be re-assured that against any alternative, the Pro L and XL measure up extremely well, and out-perform any alternatives in all important areas.”

Also on the booth, FELIXprinters will be showcasing the soon to be released FELIX BIO printer. For the first time at Formnext it will be available for pre-order, with a 1-2 month lead time for delivery, and will be available from stock from the beginning of 2020.

The FELIX BIO printer has been developed on the chassis of the established FELIXprinters product line, meaning that at its heart is the tried and tested technology that has already been serving manufacturers for years. The printer is characterized by key features that are specifically designed for medical, scientific, and research applications, including syringe cooling, print bed cooling and heating, a dual head system, easy syringe positioning (ergonomic access to the machine supports researchers in their work), and automatic bed levelling. The BIO printer has already been used at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) to print optical waveguides to trigger optogenetically modified dopaminergic neural stem cells.

Guillaume Feliksdal says, “The printer has a flexible, adaptable ecosystem that will meet the wide range of researchers’ needs. One major advantage is the source control system which enables the user to use standard slicing software and make changes themselves if needed. Syringes are not restricted to expensive brand-specific or in-house produced products that essentially drive up operating costs. The machine instead has been designed to use a standard 5ml syringe, and standardized petri dishes and culture plates, so there are no limitations on auxillary parts and materials.”

The FELIX BIO has retraction capability, which is not possible with alternative air pressure systems, even when it is required to control liquid flow. The FELIX BIO can retract with a highly precise motor, which also allows for better dosage of materials and more accurate material flow.

Wilgo Feliksdal continues, “We have followed strict sterilization protocols when designing the FELIX BIO, and users will benefit from the fact that print heads are easy to sterilize, which eliminates the likelihood of contamination. Print heads are also modular units that can be easily changed, and separate heads are available as accessories for quick change over to different materials. The FELIX BIO also has a unique probing system, which results in a perfect first layer, which in turn leads to accurate printing results. The bed levelling system is not dependent on which nozzle is used because the probing is done with the nozzle being used actually against the print surface.

The FELIX BIO is appropriate for all types of bio-printing research, and is equipped with strong motors that can extrude a range of different viscosity of materials. It will be showcased alongside the company’s Tec 4, Pro 3 Touch, and Pro L and XL machines at Formnext.

Why not visit the FELIXprinters booth, and discuss with our expert team the ways in which the company works with its customers to ensure best-fit solutions for specific industrial applications.

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FELIXprinters (Booth A66, Hall 12.1) has successfully established itself as a leading supplier of industrial AM machines that are characterised by their accuracy, ease-of-use, reliability, and repeatability. The company’s culture of innovation and advancement ensures that not only are its AM platforms providing exceptional builds, but they are doing so at a cost that is sensitive to customer demand, opening up the industrial use of AM as a production technology to a huge section of industry previously under-served. The company is truly hitting the sweet spot between value and quality.

Wilgo Feliksdal, co-owner at FELIXprinters comments, “Formnext comes at an exciting time for FELIX as we get significant industry uptake of our recently introduced Pro L & XL larger build area 3D printers. An independent review of our XL platform recently concluded that this was the only industrial large build area AM platform that matched Ultimaker in terms of build quality within its class. This is obviously hugely gratifying for us to receive this independent endorsement, and details and the review will be available on our booth in Frankfurt.”

The Pro L and XL machines (which will be working on FELIXprinters booth at Formnext) can be easily installed within a manufacturing setting, and both can be transported through a normal office door opening (900 mm).  The Pro L and XL come with a range of automated and intelligent features that remove many of the tedious and time-consuming hurdles often associated with AM, and speeding up the overall process. A stand-out example of this is the design of the dual nozzle. When the dual extruders are printing together they are at different print levels, avoiding any collisions and minimizing print failure. Moreover, if one nozzle is idle, it is automatically rotated out of the way so that there is no interference with the printed part, again avoiding damage to the print (and print failure).

FELIXprinters is unique in the AM sector for the extent of the relationships that it encourages with its customers. The company believes that for customers to get the best from their use of 3D printing, they need to work as a strategic partner and advisor, ensuring that the use of the technology is optimised for each individual application. This relationship with the customer also extends into the nature of the AM platforms that the company produces, with FELIXprinters often developing tailor-made advanced 3D printing solutions bespoke to specific customer applications.

A key development, and one for which details will be available at Formnext (in advance of an imminent commercial launch) is the FELIX BIO 3D printer. FELIXprinters has worked alongside the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) to ensure that it is leading the way in the development of practical 3D bio-printing solutions, balancing both form and function.

Wilgo Feliksdal continues, “We are delighted to be at the advanced development stage of our printing solution for biomedical applications, and attendees at Formnext will be able to come and discuss the technology with our team of experts. The FELIX BIO 3D printer is designed to simplify the printing process by guiding the user through every step. It also gives users numerous options and a great deal of control, with the ability to print with a wide range of biomaterials that mimic the native environment of each specific type of cell. Users can optimize the process for heart tissue, skin, cartilage, bone, etc., thanks to special features such as exchangeable print heads that offer multiple options for heating and cooling according to the needs of the material.”

Attendees are invited to come to Hall 12.1 booth A66 at Formnext to see all the company’s machines in action, and to handle the parts that the FELIX range of machines can produce in order to assess first hand the exceptional quality and accuracy that can be attained. In addition, the company invites attendees to bring details of specific applications to the booth that our team of on-site experts can discuss with you to advise of the FELIX AM platform that will best fit your requirements.

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