Service Distributed Energy. “It will
also allow us to effectively connect
to our external customers, while
providing a detailed outlook on costs
and production time from beginning
to end.”
COLLABORATION
Another notable collaboration in this
regard is the strategic collaboration
between Oerlikon AM, the additive
manufacturing unit of technology
group Oerlikon and Siemens AG.
The agreement will see Siemens
supply Oerlikon AM with digital
enterprise solutions that will help
the Switzerland-based company
accelerate AM’s industrialisation.
The integration of Siemens’ digital
expertise portfolio in Oerlikon’s
software landscape in its AM and R&D
sites will support Oerlikon in actively
managing the AM process from end to
end using one interface.
“At the moment we have a variety
of special tools that we use for different
steps of the value chain,” said Dr Sven
Hicken, head of Oerlikon’s Additive
Manufacturing Business Unit.
“Developing a more integrated
system that gives us increased
visibility and puts all of our
manufacturing sites on the same
page will allow us more flexibility
and speed in responding to customer
requests.”
The two companies will begin
by focusing on tools used in the
engineering part of the AM process.
The project is expected to take
approximately two years to complete,
but individual models will go into
operation when completed.
“Oerlikon has extensive expertise
in the AM process,” said Dr Karsten
Heuser, vice-president of additive
manufacturing for Siemens Digital
Industries. “We know we can learn
from them and are excited by the
opportunity to use our technology to
enhance their productivity. Working
together, we believe we can make a
major impact on industry’s adoption
of AM.”
From a software point of
view, Siemens Digital Industries
Software has also announced AM
Path Optimizer, a beta technology
integrated in NX software, to help
customers solve overheating
challenges and help reduce scrap and
increase production yield to achieve
the industrialisation of AM, or the use
of AM at the industrial scale. Siemens
has developed this next generation
advanced simulation technology
to help maximise the production
yield and quality of powder bed
fusion manufactured parts. This
latest extension of Siemens’ end-toend
AM solution feeds the digital
thread, informing each step of the
industrialised AM process.
Building on the Simcenter
Additive Manufacturing Process
Simulation solution announced in
November 2018, AM Path Optimizer
complements Siemens’ strategy for
the digital twin of the manufacturing
process and addresses errors
originated from suboptimal scan
strategies and process parameters.
These can lead to systematic failures
due to overheating, which can
cause scrap and inconsistencies in
component quality.
FIRST TIME RIGHT
Siemens has had success
demonstrating this beta technology
with Trumpf as a partner. “With the
AM Path Optimizer, Siemens and
Trumpf can push industrialisation
of additive technologies further
forward,” said Jeroen Risse,
AM Expert at TRUMPF. “In
our demonstrations we saw an
improvement of geometrical accuracy,
elimination of re-coater errors caused
by overheating, as well as a more
homogenous surface quality. Also, the
scrap rate is expected to be reduced
significantly.”
The technology uses an innovative
approach combining physics-based
simulation with machine learning to
analyse a full job file in few minutes
before execution on the machine.
This technology is expected to help
achieve ‘first time right’ prints and
drastically reduce trial and error. It
can also help reduce printing costs
and enable the printing of components
that are nearly impossible to achieve
today.
“AM Path Optimizer is the latest
innovation in Siemens’ end-to-end
AM solutions, and one that we feel
will have a great impact on the
use of AM for powder bed fusion
manufactured parts,” said Feuer.
“The combination of NX for AM and
our Simcenter AM technology within
the Xcelerator portfolio provides our
customers with key capabilities to
assist manufacturers in designing and
printing useful parts at scale, which is
unmatched in the market.”. !
Left to right: Dr. Sven
Hicken, Oerlikon,
Head of Additive
Manufacturing
Business Unit & Dr.
Karsten Heuser,
Siemens, Vice
President for Additive
Manufacturing.
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