Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has emerged as a transformative technology, revolutionizing traditional manufacturing processes across industries. Within the realm of AM, several versatile and widely adopted methods are available. Each offering significant potential for rapid prototyping, tooling, and production-grade part manufacturing. Particularly in polymer processing, techniques like powder bed fusion or deposition modeling are commonly favored. Nevertheless, challenges persist in refining these AM processes and accurately predicting outcomes, including the management of residual stresses and accounting for material property variations induced during printing. If not accounted for these, it can ultimately lead to distortions, cracks and, hence, a shortened product life.

In this session, you will discover the capabilities of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform in simulating many aspects of a 3D-printing workflow integrated in the product development process of a consumer drone series. Starting point is a topology optimized polymer-chassis. As a next step in the workflow, the build tray and supports for the chassis are prepared. Furthermore, the control of material activation, heating, tool path generation and post-processing of the printed drone is shown. We highlight how using these tools vastly decrease development iteration time by detecting potential issues in the printing process at earlier stages. Additionally, it ensures that the drone adheres to performance and quality standards prior to the start of mass production.

Presentation