Powder Bed Machine Programmer

The DELMIA 3DEXPERIENCE Powder Bed Machine Programmer (APB) Role provides a 3D interactive environment that enables Manufacturing Engineers to optimize powder bed fusion manufacturing techniques. Powder Bed Machine Programmer makes it easy for Engineers to setup, program, analyze, and re-use additive manufacturing processes.

Powder Bed Machine Programmer lets users choose the proper material and machine, which can then be stored as a configuration for reuse. To fully optimize the production set-up, engineers can automatically nest parts or adjust the part placement manually on the build tray.

Users can create diverse support structures with or without perforation, fragmentation, attachments to stabilize the part, or use Powder Bed Machine Programmer to recognize zones, then add supports where needed automatically. Users can generate scanned paths based on the 3D geometry and apply appropriate strategies to control quality variables for both parts and supports for printers using one or several lasers.

The build plate with parts and supports to be printed can be output in 3MF, AMF and STL formats. The laser path can be output under specific printer format such as MTT for Renishaw printers. This helps improve quality of the part, mitigate waste, and shorten the time required to print a quality part.

Basic design capabilities are available to help additive manufacturing engineers refine a part design for the fabrication process. Using an intuitive interface, these apps provide a full suite of powerful tools for designing and validating components to support production engineering at all levels of the enterprise.

DELMIA Powder Bed Machine Programmer

Powder Bed Machine Programmer Benefits

Cost & Time prediction

The relative cost of the additive materials and the time related to the full process can be predicted at any step. This provides the user with useful business information to go into production.

Validate the additive process virtually

Process prove-out on the additive machine can take a lot of time and material, only to repeat the process multiple times to successfully produce a part. The Powder Bed Machine Programmer role allows users to validate the additive process virtually. Using Powder Bed Machine Programmer, users can identify or engineer the appropriate supports, and type of machine used. They can select the appropriate material /powder, beam direction and intensity, as well as layer thickness, and then adjust their process virtually.

A simplified user interface for non-expert users

Additive researchers and machine programmers can easily input and adjust the proper parameters for printing.

Automatic part placement and orientation

Powder Bed Machine Programmer has rule-based 3D nesting capabilities to orient parts on the print tray to the best manufacturing direction. If no existing configuration or manufacturing direction is available, Powder Bed Machine Programmer will compute the most effective orientation for saving powder and time and for minimizing supports. Powder Bed Machine Programmer can avoid positioning parts in low-precision areas of the build tray, taking coating blade direction into account.

Automatically generates supports

Powder Bed Machine Programmer provides linear, conical, tree or lattice supports to prepare designs for powder bed manufacturing. Powder Bed Machine Programmer utilizes a rule-based approach to identify the appropriate areas for supports to be used. 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

Powder Bed Machine Programmer 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 build plates’ restricted areas. 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.

Create the laser path

Powder Bed Machine Programmer generates a laser path based on the 3D geometry. Users can then implement a variety of techniques including back-and-forth, hatching, chess pattern, as well as contouring and morphing operations. They can also adjust laser management parameters such as power, speed, spot diameter and melting depth.

Manage multi-laser printers

If the printer is equipped with several lasers, the programmer is able to associate parts or regions to each laser. The scan path simulation shows, layer by layer, the motion of each laser using different colors and delivers information related to the usage rate.

Re-usable best practices

Once the optimum laser path, material, laser parameters, machine, etc. are defined, they can be stored as templates to be used again. These best practices for additive manufacturing can be searched and applied to similar parts.

Design and validate a part before printing

Manufacturing Engineers can rework the part design using Boolean operations. This allows the removal of small holes or the replacement of bigger holes by auto-supporting shapes such as diamonds, adding thickness on functional surfaces that will be removed in post-treatment to conform to the geometrical constraints. These geometrical modifications will result in a part that can be finished downstream applications.

DELMIA Powder Bed Slicing

Powder Bed Machine Programmer Highlights

3D Nesting

3D Nesting is a critical step in the build preparation stage. This new function enables the automatic nesting of parts to maximize the number of parts in the print chamber.

• 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 use a combination of different parts and automatically optimize the build volume and parts position
• Parts can be positioned in both 2D or 3D

Multi-laser management

Manage multiple lasers for printing parts on a single build layout. While one laser is working, another one can be printing another section. Laser paths are displayed by color and layer, as well as the percentage as each laser progresses. Multi-laser management can result in significantly reduced production times and cost savings

Mass Labelling

Labelling with automatic indentation allows traceability of the parts. Define your own labelling strategy and let the software creating the text and the indentation related to the number of part that will printed on the build plate.

Save time and energy 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.

Optimized part positioning

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

Creation of supports

Users of Powder Bed Machine Programmer 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

Powder Bed Machine Programmer can output multiple files such as STL (binary and ASCII), AMF, 3MF and slicing format: CLI (binary and ASCII), SLC, MTT (Renishaw), and EOS print files. This allows the user to implement a wide variety of 3D printers and additive systems to better accommodate their production scenario.

Create or modify any 3D part

CATIA Part Design Essentials apps gives you best-in-class features combined with Boolean operations. Choose between several features (offset, thickness, scaling) to prepare the printed part to support downstream applications such as machining, wire EDM, or anticipate the part distortion.

Create complex surfaces

Generative wireframe & surface functionality provides an extensive set of tools for creating and modifying mechanical surfaces for complex shapes or hybrid parts.