Siemens announces additive manufacturing software tool to improve 3D printing accuracy

Siemens PLM Software recently announced its Additive Manufacturing (AM) Process Simulation tool, said to predict distortion during 3D printing. Designed to build on the company’s digital innovation platform and Simcenter portfolio, the tool uses a digital twin to simulate the build process prior to printing, anticipating distortion within the printing process and automatically generating the corrected geometry to compensate for these distortions. This simulation is meant to help users construct a “first time right” print so they can achieve the efficiencies required of a fully industrialized additive manufacturing process. According to the company, simulation of the printing process will help alleviate potential problems that can arise from residual heat from fusing printing layers, such as part warping, structural issues and print stoppage. 

Integrated into the Powder Bed Fusion Process chain in the company’s Additive Manufacturing portfolio, the product provides a guided workflow to the user that allows for the assessment of distortions, the prediction of recoater collisions, prediction of areas of overheating and other important feedback about the print process. The AM Process Simulation solution claims the ability to iterate on a solution between the design and build tray setup steps of the workflow, and the simulation step. The simulation data created feeds into the digital thread of information which informs each step of the printing process. This digital backbone is meant to enable the system to develop pre-compensated models and to feed those back into the model design and manufacturing processes without additional data translation.

The AM Process Simulation solution is expected to be available in January 2019, as part of the latest NX software and Simcenter 3D software.