Page 21 - 3D Metal Printing Magazine Winter 2022

Formnext 2021 3D
how DigiPart can be leveraged. The soft- ware, teamed with Spare Parts 3D’s expert- ise, catalogs a company’s spare-parts inventory, collects 3D models of the parts and develops digital passports and a dig- ital inventory—along the way identifying those parts that can be stocked via on- demand 3D printing. The software auto- mates the technical and economical iden- tification of parts for AM, the creation of qualified data packages for digital pass- ports and AM-ready inventories, and the selection of 3D printing service suppliers to produce the parts.
DigiPart software consists of three modules: Identify develops a roadmap by identifying the AM viability for all parts, thus creating a roadmap for future man- ufacturing; Catalog builds a secured AM- ready digital inventory; and Print routes on-demand metal, plastic and ceramic 3D printing across 25 countries.
In one application, a petrochemical company was looking to reduce inventory cost, as the company had been holding $700 million in equipment-part inventory. To avoid obsolescence issues, the company employed engineering bureaus to reverse- engineer old equipment parts, and the price of production for single parts was deemed too expensive. By identifying and cataloging candidate parts and developing an on-demand print network via DigiPart, the company reduced production lead time of needed parts by an average of three weeks with part-production costs reduced by 60 percent.
Spare Parts 3D: www.spare-parts-3d.com
Cooling Gains in nTopology Heat-Sink Redesign for Motorsports Application
Puntozero has employed nTopology software to redesign the cold plate for the power electronics of Dynamis PRC’s elec- tric race car, optimizing the design for AM. The result: a 25-percent-lighter liq- uid-cooled heat sink and bioinspired flow guides (think shark fins) that reportedly increased the heat transfer surface area by 300 percent. An EOS M 290 AM machine printed the component, (pic- tured) using m4p PureAl powder from
Italian company m4p Material Solution GmbH.
The flow guides, based on a warped- gyroid lattice structure, smoothly stir the flow around the curved channels to elim- inate spots with zero flow velocity. At the same time, the flow-guide design dramat- ically increases the contact area between the liquid and the aluminum heat sink, according to nTopology officials. nTopology: www.ntopology.com
Materialise Exercises Option to Acquire Link3D, Licenses Siemens Software
Materialise revealed that it has agreed to exercise its previously reported option to acquire Link3D Inc., an AM workflow and digital-manufacturing software com- pany with products to assist manufactur- ers integrating their AM operations across supply chains and IT environments.
The buy builds on Materialise’s existing AM software suite and the company’s cloud-based platform strategy. The Mate- rialise software platform will offer com- panies cloud-based access to a continu- ously growing set of digital tools, enabling users to personalize and manage their 3D printing processes and streamline their workflows, according to company officials. The acquisition of Link3D will strengthen and accelerate the creation of the Mate- rialise software platform, they continue, particularly for companies scaling their AM operations to volume production.
By integrating Link3D’s manufacturing execution system with the Materialise Magics software suite into a unified, cloud-based software platform, manufac- turers reportedly will be able to run and continuously improve processes to mass- produce identical or customized products. This process extends beyond the actual 3D printing operations and creates a clos- er alignment between 3D printing and conventional manufacturing, signaling the removal of the wall between both pro- duction environments, according to Mate- rialise officials.
Also, Materialise announced that it has licensed Siemens’ Parasolid software for integration with Magics. With Parasolid technology, Materialise will add native CAD workflows within Magics 26, provid- ing an additional toolset on top of mesh functionality. This combination allows users to continue iterating CAD designs in Magics to prepare for AM processes, improving productivity and providing cleaner, more accurate and fit-for-purpose data, according to company officials.
Magics 26, to be released this spring, reportedly will enable users to seamlessly transition from design optimization in CAD to mesh-based file preparation. This allows users to simply review and edit parts with designers and engineers who are familiar with CAD systems before tran- sitioning to mesh for platform and build preparation.
Materialise: www.materialise.com/en
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