Altair’s Greg Johnson on how simulation helps optimize the additive build.
Additive manufacturing has one major advantage over any other form of part making: the ability to create shapes that are literally impossible with any other technology. Hollow sections, compound curvature, helices and complex internal structures are all just as easy to print as simple structures.
But the prediction of performance attributes like deflection under load is very difficult when the part shape is highly complex. Some 3D part makers iterate their way forward, printing and testing multiple articles to get to an optimized design.
Advanced simulation, however, can perform this task virtually, completing in minutes what a test engineer would take days or weeks to achieve. Optimization through simulation can save time, money and almost as importantly, machine run time. Greg Johnson, Manufacturing Simulation Specialist with Altair, describes the advantages to engineering.com’s Jim Anderton.
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