FARSOON and FABULOUS collaborate on parts for food and water industries

FABULOUS, a French company specialized in powder materials for powder bed systems, developed a series of innovative materials that meet very high certification requirements and properties. All FABULOUS’ materials have been successfully tested on FARSOON systems, with early adopter service bureaus using them on several applications. The collaboration between the two companies focuses on helping end-users with new materials for industrial applications, such as the BLUECARE products, developed specifically for the food industry, and the ACTIVE materials, dedicated mainly to the water industry.

Based on bio-sourced PA11, BLUECARE is mass blue and has been certified for Food Contact Applications according to the “Commission Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 of 14 January 2011 on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food and alcohol. ID Print3D, a 3D printing service based in France and FARSOON technology customer, is using BLUECARE powder to design 30 cm wide modular food conveyor belts. This was a success, according to Mr. Panchot, manager of ID Print3D: “BLUECARE is the ideal material for additive manufacturing of parts for food conveyors—he said. [helping us to] avoid the manufacture of a mold that is too expensive for the number of parts [that needed] to be made.”

ACTIVE is a new material specifically developed for the water industry: it has been certified (ACS certification) for potable water applications and plastic parts in contact with drinkable water, such as water pumps, hydraulic systems, data sensors, and all permanent water-immersed parts. Thanks to its composite formulation, ACTIVE has very high-standard properties (especially high-T° and low-T° resistance). The “Accréditation de Conformité Sanitaire (ACS)” is a French & European health standard organisation concerning drinkable water. The equivalent standard in North America is NSF-ANSI 61 certification. RICOH 3D printing service, FARSOON customer, based in the UK, is using the ACTIVE material for manufacturing water pump strainers.

Additive Manufacturing is increasingly used for small series applications, where it needs part properties and certificates specific to the targeted use. For orders > 600 kgs, FABULOUS offers to develop a dedicated batch with the end-users formulation. A new offer that meets the needs of application end-users.