Oprah’s you get a car meme. (Image generated with imgflip.com.)
This latest computer-aided engineering (CAE) additive manufacturing announcement is from ANSYS, which comes in the form of an acquisition of 3DSIM and its additive manufacturing simulation workflow, exaSIM.
The purchase also includes FLEX, which helps develop 3D printing operations and best practices based on one’s materials and equipment selections.
3DSIM designed exaSIM to be an intuitive CAE software. Therefore, its user interface (UI) has been optimized to be used by manufacturers, designers, material scientists and engineers. This is perfect for ANSYS, which has been keeping the democratization of simulation front of mind lately.
The terms of this acquisition haven’t been announced.
ANSYS points out that one reason for its acquisition, and by proxy, these similar announcements, is the fast-growing additive manufacturing market.
However, implementing 3D printing can be tricky. Think about it, in 3D printing, you have a laser that is getting metal hot enough to deposit onto a larger structure but not hot enough to damage the structure itself. It’s not an easy task to complete with trial and error. This doesn’t even take into consideration the stress created by heating and cooling the part after each metal deposit.
ANSYS hopes that by combining its flagship software with exaSIM and FLEX, it will be able to help users reduce the risks, trail and error of implementing a 3D printing workflow. It also hopes to speed up the installation and optimization of said 3D printing equipment.
"Additive manufacturing is changing the way companies are bringing products to market, and 3DSIM is helping to lead the way through its innovative solutions," said Shane Emswiler, ANSYS vice president and general manager. "By bringing exaSIM and FLEX onto our Workbench platform, ANSYS can offer customers the only end-to-end additive manufacturing simulation workflow available. That will spark innovation, speed time to market and reduce manufacturing costs for our customers across industries."
Some of the abilities of the new ANSYS software includes:
- exaSIM analysis capabilities:
- Residual stress
- Distortion
- Build failure
- Tolerancing
- FLEX capabilities
- Ability to determine best process parameters based on material and 3D printer
- Optimization of part integrity, microstructure and properties
Co-founder of 3DSIM Brent Stucker goes into great detail about the capabilities of exaSIM and FLEX in a recent interview on ENGINEERING.com. For more on the trend of simulating 3D printing, read the
eBook: CAE Industry Trends Empower Engineers to Simulate Everything.