Farsoon Technologies' Revenue for the First Half of 2024 Reaches 227 Million CNY

On September 2, 2024, Panda3dp.com learned that recently, Farsoon Technologies(华曙高科) (SH 688433) released its financial report for the first half of 2024, achieving an operating income of 227 million CNY, a decline of 5.75% compared to the same period last year. Net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 32.90 million CNY, a decrease of 22.60% year-on-year. The gross profit margin was 49.61%, down 4.37 percentage points from the same period last year.

Major Developments in the First Half of 2024

1. Actively Advancing Investment Projects, Expanding Production and R&D Facilities

During the reporting period, the company actively promoted the construction of investment projects such as the “Additive Manufacturing Equipment Expansion Project” and the “R&D Headquarters and Industrialization Application Center Project,” encompassing approximately 122 acres of land, with a total site area of about 82,000 square meters and a total building area of 140,000 square meters. These include R&D buildings, production plants, and processing service centers. By the end of January 2024, the primary structural construction of the R&D buildings and production plants of the first phase had been completed. By the end of the reporting period, the first phase of these buildings had entered the decoration stage and is expected to be completed and put into use in the second half of 2024.

2. Increased Investment in R&D, Continuously Innovating Technologies

Through continuous independent innovation, the company has established a comprehensive, integrated technology system covering equipment, software, materials, processes, and applications in the fields of Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), securing proprietary intellectual property rights. In the first half of 2024, Farsoon continued to increase its R&D investment, expanding its team of R&D personnel. The company's total R&D expenditure during the reporting period reached 40.97 million CNY, an increase of 5.68% compared to the same period last year, accounting for 18.05% of total revenue.

During this period, the company acquired five new invention patents, 13 utility model patents, seven design patents, and three software copyrights. By the end of the reporting period, the company held 172 valid invention patents, 177 utility model patents, 45 design patents, and 45 software copyrights. Additionally, the company took the lead in or participated in the formulation of one new national standard for additive manufacturing technology during the reporting period. As of the end of the reporting period, the company had led or participated in the formulation of 15 national standards and six industry standards for additive manufacturing technologies.

During the reporting period, the company consistently enhanced its technological R&D efforts and innovation capabilities, launching low-support technology that enables the high-efficiency, high-quality, mass production of complex structural parts without the need for support, reducing support usage by 99.8%. It overcame significant technical challenges related to the forming of special structures like inverted cones and horizontal round holes, marking a substantial improvement in low-angle forming capabilities in metal 3D printing. Additionally, the company introduced advanced scanning control technology, allowing for highly consistent scanning lines and significantly expanding the process development window. This multi-channel control technology enables one card to simultaneously control four galvanometers and lasers to perform different scanning tasks, breaking long-standing import restrictions and achieving domestic substitution. In the field of polymer materials, the company developed nylon powder materials with high yield strength and PA6 Flight materials with high strength, heat resistance, and toughness.

3. Expanding into Application Markets to Meet Diverse Customer Needs Across Various Industries

With years of deep involvement in the 3D printing technology sector, Farsoon Technologies has gained a profound understanding of the diverse needs of customers across various industries. Through independent innovation, the company continuously achieved breakthroughs in size, efficiency, quality, cost, and intelligence in additive manufacturing, offering more solutions tailored to the needs of specific industrial users. During the reporting period, the company actively collaborated with customers in various downstream industries, empowering them with breakthrough innovations in design and improved production efficiency across multiple application fields.

In the consumer goods sector, the company partnered with top-tier golf design firms to launch brand-new 3D-printed titanium alloy golf club heads and customized metal 3D printing solutions for well-known titanium alloy bicycle manufacturers. In the industrial mold sector, the company introduced solutions tailored to the footwear mold industry, covering equipment, materials, processes, and software, which have been successfully applied to popcorn shoe molds, EVA shoe molds, and RB shoe molds, among others. In the medical field, Farsoon's metal 3D printing equipment helped customers achieve the world’s first 3D-printed bone-like tantalum metal bone reconstruction rods (Tanyison®) and the thoracolumbar vertebral body "porous vertebral fusion cage," which successfully obtained Class III medical device registration certificates from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). Additionally, the company’s “self-stabilizing cervical interbody fusion system” was the first of its kind in China to receive NMPA approval for market release. In the low-altitude economy sector, the company has maintained long-term collaboration with internationally renowned flying car manufacturers and made new breakthroughs, laying a solid technical foundation and establishing a deep market base for further expansion in this emerging field.

Revenue Composition

Panda3dp.com noted that among the major holding and affiliate companies of Farsoon Technologies, during the reporting period, Hunan Farsoon New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. achieved revenue of 11.23 million CNY, Farsoon US recorded revenue of 4.5 million CNY, and Farsoon Europe generated revenue of 27.99 million CNY.

Farsoon Technologies reported revenue of 184 million CNY from 3D printing equipment and auxiliary parts, 18 million CNY from 3D printing powder materials, and 24.23 million CNY from after-sales services and other sources. Domestic revenue amounted to 178 million CNY, while overseas revenue totaled 48.58 million CNY.

Core Products and Services

Farsoon Technologies' core products include independently developed and proprietary metal and polymer 3D printing equipment, as well as self-produced polymer 3D printing powder materials.

Metal 3D Printing Equipment

The independently developed metal 3D printing equipment utilizes Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology, in which laser energy fully melts metal powder layer by layer to form components. This technology offers significant advantages, including excellent surface quality of the parts, high internal metallurgical density, rapid solidification characteristics, and strong mechanical properties. It enables high printing precision and the creation of extremely complex structures, making it suitable for the direct manufacturing of end-use components. Additionally, this forming technique can significantly shorten the product development and manufacturing cycle and supports a wide range of metal materials, including titanium alloys, aluminum alloys, superalloys, copper alloys, cobalt-chromium alloys, stainless steel, high-strength steel, tool steel, and refractory metals. Compared to traditional subtractive manufacturing, it provides higher material utilization and greater design freedom, allowing for advanced design methods such as integrated design, topology optimization, and lattice design. The main SLM equipment products developed and produced by the company are as follows:

Polymer 3D Printing Equipment

The independently developed polymer 3D printing equipment employs Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technology. Due to the technical complexities of shape and property control for forming materials, SLS is one of the more intricate processing methods. The company is among the few global additive manufacturing equipment suppliers that have mastered this core technology and launched industrial-grade equipment. SLS technology uses laser energy to fully melt and solidify polymer powders and other materials, resulting in parts with excellent mechanical properties and heat resistance. It allows for the creation of highly complex structures without the need for support designs, with high material utilization and precision. During printing, parts can be stacked, enhancing manufacturing efficiency, and the final products have a wide range of applications. Building on this, the company was the first in the world to introduce Flight technology, enabling multi-laser configurations, which allows for the printing of fine, thin-walled parts while significantly boosting production capacity and print quality. The main SLS equipment products developed and produced by the company are as follows:

Polymer 3D Printing Powder Materials

Guided by the diverse needs of industrial applications, Farsoon Technologies has established a comprehensive product system for polymer and composite powder materials, featuring base materials such as polyamide (PA), polyurethane (TPU), and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS). These materials are compatible with both CO2 and fiber lasers. The main 3D printing polymer powder materials developed and produced by the company are as follows: