Ansys is hoping to transform how industries such as aerospace and defence, biotech and automotive can manufacture metal parts thanks to its new solutions for metal additive manufacturing.
The newly released Ansys Additive Print and Ansys Additive Suite enable users to print lightweight complex metal parts successfully. The software aims to reduce the number of design iterations and analysis required to develop microstructure properties and behaviour.
‘Ansys is committed to transforming how products are made through additive manufacturing by delivering the most powerful, complete solution in the space,’ said Brent Stucker, director of additive manufacturing, Ansys. ‘The possibilities are endless. Our technology spurs the efficient creation of parts for some of the world's most demanding applications, including military machines on foreign soil, spacecraft on other planets and even custom-printed human body parts at hospitals.’
Additive manufacturing of metal offers many benefits with the potential to transform the industrial manufacturing landscape. As product complexity continues to grow, traditional manufacturing methods are unable to meet the growing demands, leaving companies seeking alternative ways to economically build next-generation products. Despite its many benefits, the current additive manufacturing process is time-consuming and expensive — the price of metal powders and 3D printing materials significantly limits opportunities for trial-and-error during the printing process.
Ansys' additive simulation workflow reduces those challenges and streamlines the process, affording customers with the ability to quickly test their product designs virtually before printing a part. By incorporating simulation prior to the printing process, designers can design, test and validate the performance of a part at the design stage even before turning on the printer, which greatly reduces the high cost of physical trial and error.
Ansys Additive Print produces results that demonstrate to engineers exactly what will occur during the printing process — informing designers, prior to printing, if a part will fail; and how, where and why it will fail. Simulation prior to printing drastically reduces trial and error and the expensive printing process.
‘Ansys empowers us to reimagine how we build and fly rockets,’ said Jordan Noone, chief technology officer and co-founder, Relativity Space. ‘We're using additive manufacturing to build the world's largest 3D printer and we're using that printer to 3D print a rocket. With Ansys' streamlined additive manufacturing solutions, we iterate designs 10x faster and with 100x fewer parts — we're innovating in ways that many thought were impossible.’
