nTopology
Rocket nozzle with lattice structure designed in nTop Platform.
nTopology has announced a partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) which will seek to develop new capabilities for the vendor’s nTop Platform product.
The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) will focus on enhancing the design and print preparation capabilities within nTop Platform for a selection of 3D printing processes.
Phase one of the collaboration will see the development of a toolkit which will optimise design and print preparation for Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM), connecting nTop Platform with ORNL’s slicer. Phase two, meanwhile, will focus on the creation of a toolkit to engineer direct metal grain growth with Electron Beam Melting technology and the development of a toolkit to facilitate honeycomb infill design on circle packing and simulation for fused deposition modelling (FDM). Simulation-based optimisation of support structures for BAAM, Direct Metal Laser Sintering and EBM will also be worked on.
ORNL will integrate the software with its in-house additive manufacturing equipment in a bid to improve the design and modelling controls, while also exploring the production of reusable, configurable templated for users of the Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility.
The partners believe their work together could result in significant build speed enhancements, cost savings due to reduced material usage and machine cost amortisation.
“The team at ORNL is undertaking some of the most cutting-edge research and development of advanced manufacturing processes in the world. Capturing that expertise and making it available as toolkits within nTop Platform will not only enable ORNL, but all nTop users, to leverage that expertise to design and manufacture the most advanced product in the world and space,” commented Duaan Scott, Vice President of Partnerships and Business Development at nTopology.
“We look forward to collaborating with nTopology to enhance large-scale polymer 3D printing capabilities and anticipate the development of novel software to improve printing processes,” added Michael Borish, ORNL’s lead researcher on the project. “As a leader in advanced manufacturing, ORNL works with industry to help them bring new technologies, such as the nTopology software toolkit, to the marketplace.”
