The DARPA Defense Science Office has awarded Intact Solutions, a manufacturing software company, $1.8M to develop next-generation software for the generative design of pre-qualified additively manufactured metal components that explicitly take advantage of AM process capabilities, including material heterogeneity and anisotropy, internal strains, and other process-induced properties.
The approach builds on technological breakthroughs in Intact Solution’s simulation technology for AM and generative design applications previously developed with funding from NIST and DARPA and seeks to demonstrate several transformative innovations. These include the ability to generate geometry of highly efficient components with spatially heterogeneous material properties – designed explicitly in terms of experimentally validated process plans. The generated designs will also be pre-qualified virtually for process, material properties, and function using scalable and calibrated path-scale simulation.
The Intact.Additive simulation technology is based on rigorous scientific principles and relies on the thermal history of the manufacturing process to fuse, correlate, and unify simulation, experimental, and process data. While the proposed approach applies to many AM processes, the project will focus on LPBF.
The goal of the Intact.Additive platform is to drive the adoption of AM for mission-critical applications throughout the US Department of Defense and industry. By minimizing reliance on iterative processes and physical testing, Intact.Additive aims to eliminate unnecessary waste and reduce the associated high costs. Additionally, it will improve quality by minimizing uncertainties related to both performance and manufacturing processes.
