Hexagon
Exhaust mixer scan from Formnext
Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division has unveiled its new Advanced Compensation approach. Designed to eliminate trial-and-error in precision metal part production, the new approach combines process simulation and 3D scan compensation. Utilising advanced geometry compensation, large and complex metal parts will distort into their intended shapes during the printing process.
Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) printing requires complex, physical processes which has led to safety-critical and precision-engineered application users struggling to adapt. Industries including machine building, aerospace, and medical prosthetics require high-quality surfaces, repeatability, and dimensional accuracy. LPBF can lead to inconsistencies, defects, and deviations that would not be acceptable in these types of applications.
Combining process simulation and metrology-based compensation, the Advanced Compensation approach aims to help users achieve consistent high quality, even with thinner walls prone to buckling or challenging materials. Surface profiles can be achieved within 98%-100% tolerance, with the 3D printing process easy to speed up.
Additive Industries adopted the new approach to print a stainless-steel jet engine exhaust mixer. The company achieved 0.2mm precision using only one prototype build.
“Thanks to Advanced Compensation, we successfully printed a large 316L steel component with an impressive surface tolerance of +/-0.2 mm – despite natural distortion of over 3 mm in previous builds,” said Alex Redwood, Head of Applications & Additive Studios at Additive Industries. “Achieving this precision required only one previous trial build, reducing time, material waste and allowing us to reduce the support structure to the bare minimum. This level of control and efficiency opens up new possibilities for large-scale additive manufacturing applications.”
The digital reality solutions provider’s Simufact Additive software aids users in predicting distortions and shrinkages with accurate simulations, minimising the number of print trials required. Whereas the VGSTUDIO MAX software provides powerful metrology and 3D scan analysis for more complex features. This compensates the printable mesh based on the measured deviations from an optical or computed tomography (CT) scan to address localised distortions. Users also don’t require previous metrology experience to operate the VGSTUDIO MAX platform.
“If you’re making a large complex geometry, the simulation will save you time and money – even for a one-off part,” said Mathieu Perennou, Director of Additive Strategy at Hexagon. “But when simulation alone isn’t enough, we’ve made it much easier to take an optical 3D scan and then compensate those remaining problem features so you can print ‘second time right’.
“This data-driven approach takes the guesswork out of printing small batch parts, and it can be scaled up to refine a process for larger volumes using digital twin approaches that consider not just the geometry, but also the machine parameters or material behaviour where part performance is critical.”
