While legacy processes at best incrementally improve, PtFS is deployed where other options fail to meet projects exacting step-change requirements. Surface Generation’s ground-breaking technologies nix previously intractable problems in markets where compromise and / or performance, quality, traceability, energy efficiency and safety trades are simply non-negotiable.
Every gram counts when it comes to building lighter and more fuel-efficient aircraft, so being able to economically mass-produce composite parts such as structural guide vanes cascades is a major step forward for the aerospace industry. PtFS has been optimised for the production of in and out-of-autoclave composite primary, secondary and tertiary structures. It is ideally suited for work with thermosets and thermoplastics and can be configured for low and high pressure processing using single sided or matched tooling approaches. This gives users significant reductions in capital investment, rate duplicates, ongoing energy consumption and cost per finished component.
The international automotive industry is dedicated to discovering new ways to provide safe vehicles that are lighter in weight and require less fuel. PtFS technology is used across a range of interior and exterior applications to radically reduce component weight, costs and part count by producing thinner, lighter more integrated products. Used as a standalone turnkey solution or as a bolt-on upgrade PtFS transforms the economics of even the most highly optimised mass production technique.
With a constant push from consumers for smaller, feature rich, lighter products, PtFS offers an unmatched range of processing solutions for pure and reinforced materials. With break-through advances in optics, metals, glass and in-situ consolidation, brands can produce thinner, lighter parts with more extreme geometry and higher yields. Using an AI enhanced ‘business rule’ control environment, part to part quality is uniquely assured – helping deliver tomorrow’s mega trends today through PtFS’s unique approach to material processing.
Building on the past 10 years of lightweighting aerospace & automotive work, Surface Generation has now set its sights on transforming the automated deposition of thermoplastic continuously reinforced composites fibres & tapes. Using a series of increasingly capable technology demonstrators, the team have shown it can use PtFS multi-zone active thermal management control to produce laminated structures whose properties repeatedly exceed conventional compression moulding. Working with select blue-chip launch customers, the team is now focused on expanding its range of matrices and fibres to develop supremely precise 3d printing, ATL, AFP and ISC solutions that render contemporary laser, plasma and gas systems obsolete.