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Simulation in the AM process
Metal Additive Manufacturing: A simulation provider’s perspective Over the past few years, metal Additive Manufacturing has received a lot of attention, and with good reason: the technology has the potential to radically alter the design and production of components and products in many industries. Yet in spite of the excitement that surrounds AM, the prospect of wider industrial adoption continues to face significant challenges. Ansys Inc’s Dave Conover explains how simulation, traditionally the domain of product design instead of manufacturing, has swiftly gained recognition as a key technology which can be used to ease the transition from conventional to Additive Manufacturing.
Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) is the most widely used metal Additive Manufacturing technology on the market today. In this process, a thin layer of metal powder is spread across the top of a build and exposed to a highlyfocused laser or electron beam heat source to melt it in rapidly-solidifying layers corresponding to a 2D slice of the 3D design. This process is carried out repeatedly until the build is complete. (Fig. 1) AM enables engineers to produce very complex shapes and typically results in a near net-shape part. This design freedom offers a wide range of creative opportunities for lightweighting, part consolidation and customisation. It is this capacity for weight and size reduction and customisation which has attracted the aerospace and biomedical communities to the technology as early adopters. At Ansys, many of our customers are interested in metal Additive Manufacturing, but few have purchased machines and even fewer have more than several parts in actual production. As a result, the tremendous desire within the industry
Vol. 4 No. 3 © 2018 Inovar Communications Ltd
to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by Additive Manufacturing is not currently being realised in practice. There are more than a few reasons for this, with major factors being the cost of the machines, the staff required to run them, and the design and process changes required to take advantage of AM.
Laser
In terms of the Gartner hype cycle, the industry as a whole is past the point of ‘inflated expectations’. It has realised the reality and passed through the ‘trough of disillusionment’ stage, and is on the upward ‘slope of enlightenment’, moving slowly toward truly productive use of the AM process.
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Recoater
Powder Delivery system
Object being fabricated Fabrication powder bed
Fig. 1 In the Powder Bed Fusion process, thin layers of powder are melted and solidified to form the part one layer at a time
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