瑞典软件开发人员六边形和aerospace firmRaytheon Technologieshave developed a program that allows metal 3D printer users to predict and prevent part defects before they happen.
据说使用公司的联合软件专业知识开发，该计划使设计师能够评估即将出版的印刷品的结果，而无需经过艰苦的试验和错误。旨在称赞六边形’s Simufact Additive平台，据说该软件工具正在使用类似的UI启动，因此用户可以访问更大的功能，但不必重新学习界面。
“We’ve partnered with Raytheon Technologies to deliver an intuitive and accessible tool that will help engineers quickly predict and mitigate risks,” said Jeff Robertson, Director of Global Business Development at Hexagon. “The ability to evaluate full laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) parts on the meso-scale will reduce the effort to achieve part certification and thereby support industrialization.”
Raytheon’s 3D printing excursions
雷神公司位于弗吉尼亚州，是航空航天和国防跨国公司。因此，该公司的研发工作涵盖了多个行业和技术，但对3D印刷持续了长期的兴趣，尤其是在其业务的航空航天方面。2020年7月，America Makesnamed Raytheon as the winner of one of its Project Calls, along with its $841,000 funding prize.
The firm’s project submission, which included input from its Intelligence and Space, Missiles and Defense, and Research Center divisions, proposed the development of a revised LPBF software workflow. Using this, Raytheon said it’d be possible for adopters to easily create topologically optimized ‘exotic designs’ with conventional additive materials, like optimized3D打印的光学支架为了US Air Force.
Engine manufacturer and Raytheon subsidiaryPratt & Whitneyis also a long-term adopter of the technology. At the国际巴黎航空展in 2019,GKN Aerospacerevealed that it had expanded its partnership with the company into the3D printing of GTF engine parts，包括制作的风扇盒架环和风扇垫片。
Complimenting Simufact Additive
六边形’s existing Simufact Additive program is designed to enable metal 3D printer users to slash time spent on testing, by simulating builds before they’re printed. Compatible with LPBF, Direct Energy Deposition (DED) and binder jetting technologies, the platform takes a multi-scale approach to tackling issues, which ranges from mechanical checking to full thermal-mechanical transient analysis.
The platform itself is based around numerical simulation specialistMSC软件’sMARC solver, a technology that covers a wide range of physical effects that’s been adapted for 3D printing. In Simufact Additive, the software tool allows users to minimize residual stresses, compensate for distortions, identify potential part failures, assess post-processing impact, optimize build plate nesting and more.
Essentially, the program does so by enabling adopters to simulate prints before comparing results to a build’s target geometry, in a way that makes defects clear, and then highlighting fixes through analyses. According to Hexagon, Simufact Additive ultimately reduces the learning processes of manufacturers, while ensuring they optimize employee productivity and minimize their products’ times-to-market.
在其最新的软件创新中，Hexagon的制造智能部门与Raytheon Technologies的Pratt和Whitney Business合作，开发了一种全新的仿真工具。除了互补，还揭示了该技术将使设计师能够根据材料，几何形状和打印过程的组合评估印刷成果。
It’s also said the similarity of the software’s UI will allow for its easy integration into existing manufacturing processes without the need for extensive training, something David Furrer, Pratt & Whitney’s senior fellow for materials and processes, adds will “help manufacturers with all levels of experience make better products with greater efficiency.”
Though there’s no doubt Simufact Additive has proven popular, as its clientbase includes the likes of奥迪,Mercedes和Jaguar, it’s far from the only software in this space.ANSYS Additive Print, for instance, allows users to assess how materials stress or distort during a build, and takes corrective steps to get the parts right first time.
Similarly,Riven’s Warp Adapted Model softwareallows users to capture and use full-part 3D data from an initial design to identify and correct errors in minutes. Designed to work withAuthentiseAMES, the FFF, SLA, MJF and binder jetting-compatible technology unlocks full contextual data capturing, as a means of picking out divergences from part models.
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Featured image shows Hexagon’s Simufact Additive platform being used to analyze a part. Image via Hexagon.
