Velo3D Inc., a metal additive manufacturing technology company for mission-critical parts, announced the release of its Flow 3.0 print preparation software. The new version supports larger models of parts that are able to be manufactured on the company’s Sapphire XC (Extra Capacity) printer, which can produce parts that are up to 400% larger than the Sapphire printer. Flow 3.0 also supports the scheduling of additional lasers to maximize the efficiency of the Sapphire XC’s eight 1,000 W lasers and increase productivity by up to 5x compared to Velo3D’s Sapphire printer.
Velo3D’s Flow 3.0 print preparation software is unique in the additive manufacturing industry. It enables engineers to simply upload a traditional CAD file of a part they want to print, rather than having to spend additional resources designing the part for additive manufacturing (DfAM). By eliminating the need for DfAM, Velo3D enables its customers to freely design the mission-critical parts they want and then print them with precision.
“By providing an end-to-end solution we are able to let engineers focus on building the mission critical parts they need,” said Daniel Russel, Velo3D Director of Engineering. “The 3.0 release brings support for the sorts of large models that can be printed on Sapphire XC, warnings and guidance to customers during build preparation, along with tools for managing build preparation on clusters, Amazon Web Services, and many other improvements. The initial feedback we’ve heard from our customers has been very positive.”
Flow 3.0 accomplishes this by utilizing a generalized set of recipes to precisely prescribe and simulate the layer-by-layer build for the desired part. The software’s composer detects geometric features and applies the corresponding process to achieve that desired outcome. Unlike other software offerings, Flow 3.0 uses information from previous layers to inform the print strategy for subsequent layers, resulting in better parts and greater design freedom.
“When we are building new features into Flow we aim to simplify the experience for engineers who want to create parts using our additive manufacturing technology,” said Victorien Menier, Velo3D Senior Software Engineer. “Our team is extremely proud of all that Flow 3.0 has achieved throughout the beta period. The revised scheduling rules make it so Sapphire XC can reach 98% efficiency with its eight lasers, which is a big contributor to its ability to achieve a 5X improvement in performance.”
With Flow 3.0, the print preparation software can reliably generate and leverage meshes of models containing up to hundreds of millions of triangles. The capability is made possible by offloading the computation of larger files to Amazon Web Services. The customer sends a CAD file and receives back a compacted file that can be used on any printer to build the part.
The software also includes revised scheduling rules to achieve 98% efficiency of the Sapphire XC’s eight lasers, contributing to the printer’s 5x productivity improvement.
Headline picture: Flow 3.0 can process models of parts that are significantly larger to support the Sapphire XC’s increased build volume. The impeller above is approximately 600mm in diameter.
(c) Picture & Link: Velo3D
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