The manufacturing intelligence division at Hexagon (Stockholm, Sweden) announced a new partnership with CADS Additive (Perg, Austria), under which the companies will exchange technologies to boost design for additive manufacturing (AM). 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 and metal binder jetting 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.
Simufact Additive is designed to predict and compensate for distortion, residual stress, and temperature distribution throughout the printing, heat treatment, cutting, hot isostatic pressing, as well as machining processes virtually, before the part is manufactured by a three-dimensional metal printer.
Sources: Hexagon, www.simufact.com; CADS Additive, www.cads-additive.com.