Siemens announced an Additive Manufacturing (AM) Process Simulation solution for predicting distortion during 3D printing. The product is integrated into Siemens’ end-to-end Additive Manufacturing solution. Building on Siemens’ digital innovation platform and the Simcenter portfolio, the AM Process Simulation uses a digital twin to simulate the build process prior to printing, anticipating distortion within the printing process and automatically generating the corrected geometry to compensate for these distortions.
Most metal 3D printing methods use heat to fuse the layers of a print. But as the layers build up, the residual heat can cause the part to warp resulting in various problems from structural issues within the part to print stoppage. Simulation of the printing process can help to alleviate many of these problems.
Siemens’ process simulation product is integrated into the Powder Bed Fusion Process chain in the Siemens PLM Software Additive Manufacturing portfolio and is used to predict distortion for metal printing. The product provides a guided workflow to the user that assesses distortions, a prediction of recoater collisions, prediction of areas of overheating, and other important feedback about the print process.
The AM Process Simulation solution lets users iterate on a solution between the design and build tray setup steps of the workflow and the simulation step. This closed feedback loop is possible due to the tightly integrated nature of the Siemens digital innovation platform. The simulation data created feeds into the digital thread, which informs each step of the printing process. This digital backbone enables the system to develop pre-compensated models and feeds them seamlessly back into the model design and manufacturing processes without additional data translation. This high level of integration is what customers need today in order to be successful in industrializing additive manufacturing.
The AM Process Simulation solution is expected to be available in January 2019, as part of the latest NX software and Simcenter 3D software.
Siemens PLM Software
www.siemens.com/plm/additivemanufacturing
