Velo3D, Inc., a leading metal additive manufacturing technology company for mission-critical parts, announced the release of its Flow 3.0 Print Preparation Software. The new version of the Flow software supports larger models of parts that are able to be manufactured on the company’s Sapphire XC (Extra Capacity) printer. Flow 3.0 can process models of parts that are up to 400% larger than the Sapphire printer.
Flow 3.0 print preparation software also allows for the scheduling of extra lasers, maximising the efficiency of the Sapphire XC’s eight 1,000 W lasers and increasing productivity by up to 5x when compared to Velo3D‘s Sapphire printer.
“By providing an end-to-end solution we are able to let engineers focus on building the mission-critical parts they need. The 3.0 release brings support for the sorts of large models that can be printed on Sapphire XC, warnings and guidance to customers during build preparation, along with tools for managing build preparation on clusters, Amazon Web Services, and many other improvements. The initial feedback we’ve heard from our customers has been very positive.”
– Daniel Russel, Velo3D Director of Engineering
Flow 3.0 Print Preparation Software
Velo3D’s Flow 3.0 print preparation software is unique in the additive manufacturing industry. It allows engineers to simply upload a typical CAD file of a part they wish to print rather than spending extra time and money creating the item for additive manufacturing (DfAM). Velo3D enables its customers to freely design the mission-critical parts they want and then print them with precision by eliminating the requirement for DfAM.
Flow 3.0 achieves this by employing a generic set of recipes to precisely prescribe and simulate the layer-by-layer build for the necessary portion. The composer of the software recognises geometric aspects and performs the appropriate method to produce the intended result. Unlike other software options, Flow 3.0 uses prior layer information to drive the print technique for upcoming layers, resulting in better parts and increased design freedom.
According to Victorien Menier, Velo3D Senior Software Engineer, “When we are building new features into Flow we aim to simplify the experience for engineers who want to create parts using our additive manufacturing technology. Our team is extremely proud of all that Flow 3.0 has achieved throughout the beta period. The revised scheduling rules make it so Sapphire XC can reach 98% efficiency with its eight lasers, which is a big contributor to its ability to achieve a 5x improvement in performance.”
The Flow 3.0 print preparation software can build and exploit meshes of models containing hundreds of millions of triangles. The functionality is enabled by shifting larger file computation to Amazon Web Services. The customer sends a CAD file and receives a compressed file that can be printed on any printer.
The software also features improved scheduling rules to achieve 98 percent efficiency of the Sapphire XC’s eight lasers, which contributes to the printer’s 5x productivity increase.
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