Additive Manufacturing Engineer

The DELMIA Additive Manufacturing Engineer 3DEXPERIENCE Role provides most 3D printing methods for the production of polymer parts in a new and intuitive user interface.

Additive Manufacturing Engineer covers a variety of additive techniques such as:

• SLM: Selective Laser Melting (for Metal)
• SLS: Selective Laser Sintering (for Polymer)
• BJT: Binder Jetting (for Metal)
• MJF: Multi Jet Fusion (for Polymer)
• FDM: Fused Deposition Modeling (for Polymer)
• FFF: Fused Filament Fabrication (for Polymer)
• SLA: Stereo Lithography (for polymer)
• DLP: Direct Light Processing (for Polymer)
• MJT: Material Jetting (for Metal & Polymer)

Additive Manufacturing engineer (A3D) delivers a custom user interface for the specific additive technique chosen. User can choose a desired technique and the environment intelligently presents respective capabilities for the technique chosen. This gives flexibility to the user to access only the relevant features for the chosen technique. They can store their configuration to be used again. A3D covers several similar features between a number of additive techniques.

Additive Manufacturing Engineer Role on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform

Additive Manufacturing Engineer Role Benefits

Dedicated printing wizard for chosen printing technique. Given the common features between variety of processes (SLM, SLS, BJT, MJF, FFF, FDM, SLA, DLP), the user can benefit from dedicated functionalities depending on the type of selected printer.

Automatic part placement and orientation

A3D has rule-based 3D nesting capabilities to orient parts on the print tray in the best manufacturing direction. If no existing configuration or manufacturing direction is available, A3D will compute the most effective orientation for saving material and time and for minimizing supports. A3D can avoid positioning parts in low-precision areas of the build tray, taking coating blade direction into account. Nesting can also be used in photo polymerization, material jetting and Powder bed plastic techniques.

Supports generated automatically

Linear, conical, tree or lattice supports are provided to prepare designs for powder bed manufacturing. A rule-based approach can identify the appropriate areas for supports or the user can implement their preferred method for the applicable technique such as photo polymerization, material jetting and Powder bed metal. The user can also implement their preferred method of using supports. Diamond or square-shaped perforations can be introduced into the support to reduce the amount of material necessary for the support structure. Fragmentation can also be introduced to separate the supports into smaller sections. Perforations and fragmentation both facilitate the support removal operation

Modify any created supports

A3D provides full capability to modify all supports created manually or automatically. Support attachments to the part or the build tray can be modified through the compass to avoid interferences with other supports or restricted areas on the build plate. Perforation, fragmentation & anchor can be modified on one or several supports through multi-edition capabilities. Users can preview a projection of the support structures on the build tray or on the part, enabling them to make better decisions.

Reusable best practices

Once the optimum configuration has been defined – including material, support and orientation parameters, – they can be stored as templates to be used again. They can be searched and applied to other parts of the same type.

Multiple parts

An array of heterogeneous parts can be printed in a single set-up with dedicated rules applicable to the specific parts. Users can position/auto-nest the various parts inside a cage structure and print along with the cage. Intelligent auto labelling can also be applied to group of parts.

Multiple outputs

Geometry files can be sent to the industrial printer such as STL (binary and ASCII), AMF, 3MF and slicing format: CLI (binary and ASCII) and SLC. This allows the user to implement a wide variety of 3D printers to accommodate any production scenario.

Save time by archiving best practices for reuse

Engineers can retrieve previously produced designs, using existing additive machines, build trays and powder specifications to define supports and set laser attributes. They can run a similar-part search to find an existing configuration and its template, then apply it automatically to supports and laser path parameters.

Role Highlights

3D Nesting

3D Nesting is a critical step in the build preparation stage. The automatic nesting allows for maximum utilization of the print chamber volume.

• Automatically translates and rotates a collection of 3D parts inside the build envelope
• Maximizes the use of the build volume inside the chamber
• If the number of parts exceed the volume, a warning message is displayed to the user to reconfigure the input quantity for nesting
• Allows users to select a combination of different parts and automatically optimize the build volume and part positions
  Parts can be nested in both 2D or 3D

Mass Labeling

Labeling with automatic indentation allows traceability of the parts. Define your own labeling strategy and let the software create the text and the indentation related to the number of part that will be printed on the build plate.

Optimized part positioning

Automatically optimizing the part positions on the build tray lets users increase part production without compromising each part’s integrity. Controlling where the part is printed on the tray helps ensure part quality.

Creation of supports

Users of A3D can generate Lattice, Tree, Conical and Linear supports for their geometry. This adds flexibility by allowing the user to develop different strategies for the additive process. Users can also use CAD geometry as support structures.

Multiple Outputs

A3D can output multiple files such as AMF, 3MF and STL. This allows the user to implement a wide variety of 3D printers and additive systems to better accommodate their production scenario.