Siemens AM Path Optimizer Offers Increased Production Yield

Siemens Digital Industries Software has announced Additive Manufacturing (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 industrialization of AM, or the use of AM at the industrial scale. Siemens has developed this simulation technology to maximize the production yield and quality of powder bed fusion manufactured parts. This latest extension of Siemens’ end-to-end additive manufacturing solution feeds the digital thread, informing each step of the industrialized additive manufacturing process.

Building on the Simcenter Additive Manufacturing Process Simulation solution, AM Path Optimizer is said to complement Siemens’ strategy for the digital twin of the manufacturing process and address errors that 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, the company says.

The technology combines physics-based simulation with machine learning to analyze 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 is also expected to help reduce printing costs and enable the printing of components that are nearly impossible to achieve today.