FELIXprinters had working examples of its range of industrially-oriented additive manufacturing (AM) platforms, and reinforced its position as perhaps the key supplier of industry’s most affordable, accurate, repeatable, easy-to-use, and upgradeable AM platforms.

Front and centre on the booth at Formnext were the company’s Pro L and Pro XL larger build envelope machines which were independently reviewed in 2019 as being the only commercially available AM platforms that can rival the industry-standard Ultimaker machines. The machines were both working at the show, and visitors were shown an impressive array of complex industrial builds for which the FELIX technology platforms are ideally suited.

The Pro L and Pro XL machines are respected throughout industry due to their strength, robustness, and quality of build, and today can be seen to out-perform alternatives in all important areas and for an array of exacting industrial applications. FELIXprinters’ AM platforms are synonymous with exceptional quality, and all shipped platforms are subject to a stringent 24-hour quality test before delivery to its customers.

A real show-stopper at Formnext, however, was the newly introduced FELIX BIO platform that was for the first time available for pre-order for shipping at the beginning of 2020.

Co-owner Wilgo Feliksdal says, “The FELIX BIO printer is based on the same chassis as the whole FELIXprinters product line, and 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.”

At the heart of the FELIX BIO 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 auxiliary parts and materials.

The FELIX BIO has some unique characteristics which include retraction capability, impossible on alternative air pressure systems. This is vital for optimized dosage of materials and accurate material flow. The FELIX BIO is also designed so that the print heads are easily sterilizable, and they are also modular units that can be changed easily. In addition, the FELIX BIO has a unique probing system which results in a perfect first layer the foundation of precise and accurate printing results.

Guillaume Feliksdal, co-owner sums up by saying, “Being present at events such as Formnext is vital for us. Not only does it provide us with an obvious opportunity to demonstrate our machines and prove their accuracy and robustness in industrial applications, but it also means we can discuss specific applications with our customers. This is central to everything that we do at FELIX. We do not sell AM boxes, we sell AM solutions, and central to everything that we do is to supply solutions that are ideally suited to customer requirements. As such, we are unique in the lower cost high accuracy area of 3D printing in offering truly customized solutions. This plays to the disquiet that everyone understands that many vendors are purely motivated by hitting sales targets rather than providing optimized customer solutions.”

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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 is today recognised as a prominent AM platform developer, and is finding significant elbow room in the sector as its reputation for affordable high quality AM solutions becomes more and more widely accepted across all relevant industry sectors.

Guillaume Feliksdal, Co-Founder at FELIXprinters says, “Formnext in our eyes is by far the most influential show for industrial users of AM for production applications. As such we are excited to attend this year, prominent on our booth being the larger build envelope machines, the Pro L and XL, specifically designed for exacting industrial production projects. We are also profiling our move into the bio printing arena at Formnext, which is based on years of R&D that has now yielded a commercially viable AM technology — the FELIX BIO 3D printer. And finally, we are looking forward to Formnext as a place where we can showcase our ability to tailor-make AM platforms for specific customer demands. As a company, we are unique in the way that we work with our customers, with the ability to custom build AM platforms that are application-specific to ensure optimum output and results for manufacturers that come from an array of industry sectors.”

The FELIX Pro L and XL machines will dominate the FELIXprinters booth at Formnext, due to their scale. They have been developed with greatly increased build volumes over the existing family of Pro machines. The Pro L can build parts up to 300 x 400 x 400 mm or 11.8” x 15.75” x 15.75”, while the Pro XL has a build chamber of600 x 400 x 600 mm or 23.62″ x 15.75″ x 23.62″. To ensure the quality and reliability upon which FELIXprinters has built its reputation, both of these larger systems incorporate highly engineered print chambers, which incorporate an enclosed warm zone and a cold zone. The warm zone supports consistent temperature control during the build, which is particularly important when printing materials with a high shrinkage factor, such as ABS, carbon fiber or Nylon. In contrast, the cool zone is where the electronics are housed, to prevent overheating and subsequent machine/build failure.

Wilgo Feliksdal, Co-Founder at FELIXprinters continued: “The new Pro L and XL systems come with our specific engineering expertise built in to them, as demanded by our customers. This includes a range of automated and intelligent features that remove many of the tedious and time-consuming hurdles often associated with additive manufacturing and speeding up the overall process. For example, 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. Then, if one nozzle is idle, it is automatically rotated out of the way so that there is no interference with the printed part. This avoids damage to the part being printed, and hugely reduces (if not negates) print failure, which is one of the most frustrating issues 3D printer users tell us they face.”

“We are extremely proud of the quality of all our AM machines, and were delighted when our technology was independently assessed recently, and received some amazing results. The test was conducted by Belgian-based company Trideus, which concluded that our Pro XL machine was the first large volume printer that delivers the same quality and detail as Ultimaker. Trideus reported that this was the first time that they had tested a machine of this size that achieved that. As you can imagine, this sort of feedback is extremely gratifying, and places us in a great position to attract serious commercial specifiers at Formnext.”

FELIXprinters is really keen to work with interested parties in a unique way at Formnext. Attendees are invited to bring details of specific applications to the booth that FELIX’s team of on-site experts can discuss to advise of the FELIX AM platform that will best fit specific requirements, or discuss customized soltions.

Guillaume Feliksdal continues, “By asking companies to challenge us with specific applications, we not only position ourselves as being able to accommodate a large and diverse range of production applications, but also promote the relationship that we insist on with our customers. When it comes to the use of AM as a manufacturing and production technology, we see ourselves as a strategic partner, here to guide, and ensure the best fit and most economical use of AM for specific customer needs. We do not just sell machines off the shelf and leave buyers to figure out the rest for themselves. We ensure a level of pre- and post-sales engagement that gives companies that work with us the confidence that they are getting the best return for their investment. In addition, our machines are all upgradeable, which means that platforms grow with the needs each company has over time, without the costly necessity to buy new machines.”

Come to see FELIXprinters at Formnext, and discover the numerous AM options that are available at the sweet spot between value and quality.

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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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