Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division has entered a new partnership with CADS Additive. The companies will exchange technologies to progress DfAM (design for additive manufacturing). Under the agreement, Hexagon has integrated the build prep specialist’s material-saving support structure generation technology into its Simufact Additive software. CADS Additive will also integrate Hexagon’s build simulation capabilities into its AM-Studio software.
Hexagon’s metal AM build simulation software, Simufact Additive, is used by global manufacturers to optimize production and compensate distortions resulting from laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) and metal binder jetting (MBJ) processes to deliver high-quality parts with minimal waste. The latest version, released in November 2021, introduces powerful support structure creation provided by CADS Additive that enables customers to further reduce their manufacturing preparation effort, material costs, and build time.
Customers can now create lightweight hollow rod supports, complex line supports, or block supports using CADS Additive, and achieve further optimization of material utilization with access to the company’s innovative high-stiffness “heart cell” support structures and metal-optimized tree supports. These support structures can be added to parts using a native Simufact Additive interface that utilizes all the features of the CADS Additive technology. This deep integration provides the user complete control over support structure parameters and enables the user to simulate the support structure and part build without any additional steps or software.
Patrick Mehmert, Solution Manager, Metal Additive Manufacturing at Hexagon commented: “We have been very impressed with CADS Additive’s support structure capabilities and the team’s passion for pushing the boundaries of additive manufacturing. This complements our build simulation perfectly, enabling customers to not only optimize the material and process used to make the part but to provide complete control over the creation of highly efficient and innovative support structures that significantly reduce material waste”.
Under the new partnership, CADS Additive has also licensed build process simulation capabilities from Hexagon that will be embedded in its AM-Studio software to enable customers to validate their build feasibility and predict distortions to avoid print issues.
Daniel Stadlmayr, Technical Director, CADS Additive, said: “This collaboration is a win for all the industry. We are pleased that Hexagon has chosen to implement our additive support technology in Simufact Additive. Having such accurate build simulation really helps manufacturers to get the best quality results from their printer and reduce failure, and we are pleased that we can offer our AM-Studio customers greater confidence before they commit to print.”
Simufact Additive is a scalable software solution for the simulation of metal-based additive manufacturing processes that focuses on laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) and metal binder jetting (MBJ) processes. Simufact Additive is designed to predict and compensate for distortion, residual stress, and temperature distribution throughout the printing, heat treatment, cutting, hot isostatic pressing (HIP) as well as machining processes virtually before the part is manufactured by the 3D metal printer in reality.
