The European ‘Bionic Aircraft’ research project (www.bionic-aircraft.eu ) has reached yet another milestone for additive manufacturing (AM); for the first time ever, components can be printed directly from the CATIA V5 CAD system, thanks to an interface developed by IT software and consulting firm CENIT.

With this interface, there is no need to leave the ‘development environment’, as all process steps — including post-processing — can be mapped in CATIA V5.

Indeed, exact data is available for removing the support structures during 3-D part post-processing, meaning that “elaborate reconstructions of the model and the support structures are a thing of the past”.

Jochen Michael, senior consultant at CENIT, said: “Support structures of AM components should not be removed manually in series production, but instead with NC machines.

“When creating NC programs of this type, the STL format, which in the past was used primarily for the representation of component and support structures in the 3-D print data chain, is inadequate, because it can only represent the geometry imprecisely.

“This means that the model and support structures must be reconstructed for refinishing, resulting in unnecessary expense. We can prevent this with the 3-D print from CATIA V5 directly, because the exact geometry data for this post-processing is already available.”

In order for the 3-D print to be successful via CATIA V5, CENIT helps the engineer in the preparation of data from topology optimisation — a computer-aided process that sees the material for the component reduced to the minimum necessary to meet the requirements.

The CATIA V5 Slicer developed by CENIT ‘slices’ the component into layers and sends the contours of these slices directly to the 3-D printer via the post-processor developed by CENIT.

Another Bionic Aircraft project development has seen the Fraunhofer Institute for Additive Production Technologies (IAPT) develop optimised support structures; these provide the support that AM components need in certain areas — such as at overhangs — and must be removed after the 3-D print.

Melanie Gralow of Fraunhofer IAPT said: “Thanks to an optimised geometry, the new support structures do not need as much powder.

“We were inspired by nature, which is known for its material efficiency. The hierarchically branched structures with gradients that were created as a result reduce powder consumption by 70-90% compared to conventional support structures.

“An additional benefit is that they can be removed more easily than conventional support structures, making post-processing faster and reducing the risk of damage to the component.

“The optimised structures are set up in CATIA V5 directly.”