Saltworks Fab, an automotive restoration and hot rod company, is installing two Figur G15 machines at its facility in Sarasota, Florida. Developed by Desktop Metal, a global leader in additive manufacturing technologies for mass production, the G15 is an innovative digital sheet forming (DSF) machine tool, which is able to shape standard aluminum and steel sheet metal into complex shaped parts.
“Our team has over 100 years of combined metal-shaping experience, and we’re excited to bring the latest digital metal forming technology in-house,” said David Jacobsen, CEO of Saltworks Fab. “The Figur G15 buys us time. It allows us to bring vintage vehicles back to their former glory while also enabling us to enter a whole new level of business helping customers that currently don’t have the ability or resources to form metal. Figur G15 allows us to expand access to metal-shaping services to a broader variety of small businesses, design shops, and self-builders.”
Satworks is installing two Figur G15 platforms at its Florida facility to accelerate its auto restoration business and expand access to metal forming services to new customers. The company often creates metal body panels that are no longer commercially available through manually hammering and laborious forming processes.
By investing in the Figur G15, the company will be able to dramatically reduce production times, while also providing the flexibility of digital manufacturing to create complex shapes, efficient one-offs, or produce short-runs of designs. Saltworks recently demonstrated the capabilities of the Figur G15 at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, where the team exhibited the entire side body of a Mercedes Gullwing — which were created of 6061 aluminum panels formed on the G15 in under 10 hours for the entire 15-piece assembly.
The G15 is the first commercially available machine tool platform that is able shape sheet metal on demand without custom tooling. The machine uses patent-pending DSF technology in which a software-driven ceramic toolhead on a gantry shapes standard sheet metal into parts with up to 2,000 lbs of forming force without tooling, with software that simplifies the creation of sheet metal part production.
The machine is able to deliver parts with a draw depth up to 400 mm (16 in) on metal sheet panels with a maximum sheet size of 1600 x 1200 mm (63.0 x 47.2 in), without the need for custom forming tools, molds, dies, or presses. It supports the forming of a range of metals and sheet thicknesses — including aluminum up to 2.5 mm — and delivers a high quality surface finish. The G15 provides manufacturers with a competitive way to offer formed sheet metal parts and products quickly for automotive, appliance, and aerospace applications without the high startup and development costs normally associated with sheet metal fabrication.
Saltworks is planning to purchase two additional G15 systems for its initial fleet (for a total of four) in the near future. The company plans to run all four machines over three shifts to keep up with demand.
“The response to Figur G15 from the market across a wide variety of sectors has been exciting,” said Justin Nardone, CEO of Figur, a Desktop Metal brand. “The G15 eliminates a lot of the work required when forming metal, such as the design and manufacturing of tools and dies. Our system produces designs quickly, accurately, and repeatedly, so manufacturers are able to focus on the craftsmanship of design while getting their products to market faster and more efficiently.”
