Managing Pocess Simulation and Qualification Information for New Additive Manufacturing Systems and Hardware

This paper reports on work with which Granta has been involved during the course of two multi-year multi-partner projects focused on producing high integrity defect-free additively-manufactured components up to 2 meters in size. Additive Manufacturing is an increasingly attractive technology to deliver complex components as it achieves practically zero waste during production and can create parts with highly complex geometries. The two projects are evaluating five different metal additive manufacturing processes, including those that use lasers, electron beams, and plasma to melt metal powders or wires, as well as the development of a new layer-wise manufacturing approach using highly focalized powder/heat fluxes (with dimensions in the microns range) for metals and ceramic-metallic composites.

Granta’s involvement is in supporting the crucial materials information management needs of these Additive Manufacturing projects. This includes a series of collaborations focused on simulation, in order to optimize process parameters, and on managing qualification data for multiple testing sites. Typical aims are to achieve a 50% reduction in power, consumables, raw materials, machining, and cost for finished parts, compared to traditional processing.

For example, Granta’s collaboration with the University of Cambridge enabled simulation work that informed the choice of build parameters in Additive Manufacturing processes, leading to a shorter production development time and lower part failures. The work tested and validated the use of Granta software as a means to apply materials models and analyze their results.

The paper will discuss the materials information needs of such projects, how they can be met, the benefits of doing so, and how these benefits are more generally of interest in industry.