Global engineering company Renishaw is collaborating with Simufact to enhance the success of laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF) builds through accurate simulation and streamlined additive-manufacturing (AM) build preparation.

The collaboration includes the integration of Renishaw’s QuantAM build preparation software into Simufact Additive 2020 (announced at Formnext 2019) (www.renishaw.com/additive).

The two companies are also working together on improved simulation of the complex metallurgy of commonly used materials, to enable successful prediction of — and compensation for — stress and distortion during the printing process.

Simufact Additive 2020 includes an integrated Renishaw QuantAM API (application programming interface) for build job preparation and export, which gives the user an error-free data transmission from Simufact Additive directly to Renishaw systems, improving productivity because the entire work process from design to printed part is possible within the software.

The QuantAM API now enables multi-laser build file preparation for Renishaw’s RenAM 500Q quad-laser machine.

Moreover, the collaboration extends to improving the simulation process itself, particularly as the increasing adoption of multi-laser LPBF systems for production applications presents new simulation challenges.

Faster energy input from multiple lasers means that metal components often experience higher temperatures during the printing process, affecting their micro-structure and resulting in different residual stress and distortion.

The two companies are researching such phenomena to improve the accuracy of build simulations, enabling any distortion that may arise to be predicted.

This knowledge can be used to optimise the build process — and compensate the design to accommodate expected distortion.

Victor Escobar, AM director (EMEA) at Renishaw, said: “Our customers are looking to push the performance envelope using the latest multi-laser AM systems, but they also require consistency and precision.

"A seamless integration with Simufact’s powerful simulation tools will help manufacturers to develop processes that take full advantage of multi-laser productivity, maximising build rates to make a stronger business case for AM.”