Company
About Solukon
Solukon is the pioneer and technical leader of automated depowdering in additive manufacturing. The company, located in Augsburg, Germany, has extensive experience in the development of AM systems and related peripheral equipment and offers a full range of industrial postprocessing systems. Solukon is present on four continents. The systems are trusted by leading manufacturers of 3d-printing systems, like EOS, AMCM and SLM Solutions, by institutions like NASA and Cern as well as by companies like Siemens and Ariane Group.
Why depowdering with Solukon?
Depowdering, i.e., the removal of powder from 3d printed components, is a central step in postprocessing in additive manufacturing. Solukon is the first company in the world to develop an automatic solution for this part cleaning process: the Smart Powder Recuperation technology SPR®. Using adjustable rotation and targeted vibration Solukon systems remove loose powder from 3d printed parts fully automatically. Thus, the systems also depowder components that have complex internal channels. Complex components in particular require automatic depowdering – they can no longer be completely cleaned with conventional manual powder removal.
Solukon is your reliable and innovative partner for automatic depowdering.
Our story
Andreas Hartmann and Dominik Schmid have been working on automated depowdering since 2013. A car manufacturer from Stuttgart asked them how to automatically remove loose powder from 3d printed metal components. Just one year later, Hartmann and Schmid introduced the world’s first automatic powder removal system, the SFM-01. In 2015, the two founded Solukon Maschinenbau GmbH. The same year, they delivered the SFM-AT800 – the first system with 2-axis rotation, vibration and inertisation with inert gas. One year later they launched the compact depowdering system SFM-AT300. In 2017, Solukon succeeded in entering the international market: customers from the USA, France, Great Britain and Italy acquire the postprocessing systems. Since the medical industry sector in particular has required repeatable powder removal, Solukon launched the SFM-AT200 in 2018. Its rapid inertisation makes it particularly suitable for cleaning small medical components.
Algorithm-based depowdering
Powder removal is a big challenge, especially for components with complex inner channels or cavities. Approached by Siemens, Solukon developed the S-Version for the SFM-AT800, which has two endless rotating servo drives. In parallel, Siemens developed suitable software that calculates the optimum motion algorithm for the depowdering of highly complex components. In 2019 Solukon received the TCT Postprocessing Award for their algorithm-based depowdering technology.
Depowdering of aerospace components
In order to offer the right depowdering solution for the growing aerospace industry, Solukon developed the SFM-AT1000-S at the request of AMCM. This system is particularly suitable for extraordinary large and tall components, such as rocket engines.
Winner of the Bavarian Innovation Award
Solukon’s outstanding performance also attracts attention in the Bavarian-Swabian region: The Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs awarded the Bavarian Innovation Award 2020 to the Augsburg-based company. In the same year, the machine manufacturer moved into new headquarters in Augsburg. For the first time, assembly, development and administration are at a central location.
Launch of the world’s first depowdering software
In 2022, Solukon acquires exclusive rights to the software prototype developed by Siemens in 2019. Further developed into a Solukon product, Solukon brings the software to the AM market under the new name SPR-Pathfinder®. This will allow Solukon customers to purchase licenses for the first time.
In the same year, Solukon celebrates the milestone of 200 metal depowdering systems in the field.
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