Dyndrite Awarded for LPBF Qualification
Project Principal Dyndrite and participants are Siemens Energy, ASTM International, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
The awarded project, which includes Siemens Energy and ASTM International’s Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence (AM CoE), will demonstrate and provide commercial solutions for streamlined and automated methods of OQ for Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF). Image courtesy of America Makes.
May 7, 2024
Dyndrite, providers of the graphics processing unit-accelerated computation engine used to create next-generation digital manufacturing hardware and software, announced the selection by America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) for the project: Improving LPBF Operational Qualification (OQ) through Software Automation, a $1.3M project under the “Methods for Demonstrating Operational Qualifications” award.
Currently, qualification processes in metal additive manufacturing are complex, manual, and error-prone, according to Dyndrite. Additionally, OQ ties up AM machines, for extended periods, reducing available machine time. OQ generally requires several builds to ratify basic materials property performance and develop optimal parameters for a specific geometry before freezing the process. Typical OQ results in locking the production process to a particular part revision, a given vendor's machine, model type, and often a specific serial number. A simple part change, machine upgrade, or productivity improvement, such as increasing layer thickness or print speed, all require a lengthy OQ to be rerun.
The awarded project, which includes Siemens Energy and ASTM International’s Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence (AM CoE), will demonstrate and provide commercial solutions for streamlined and automated methods of OQ for Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF). The collective output will be a data-validated software toolkit to enable Siemens Energy to automate its build creation process and reporting with machine variability understood and neutralized via parameterization across LPBF platforms.
“Siemens Energy has already demonstrated the use of AM for critical applications, appreciates the costs and challenges associated with OQ, and also understands how Dyndrite and ASTM can contribute to reducing costs and increasing material performance,” says Steve Walton, head of Product, Dyndrite. “Together we are building tools that will lead to further applications innovation within Siemens Energy for the benefit of the AM industry.”
“We are honored to be part of this project and to collaborate with esteemed partners like Dyndrite and ASTM,” says Ramesh Subramanian, principal expert at Siemens Energy. “Our joint efforts are poised to spearhead innovations that streamline operational qualifications, which are crucial for advancing additive manufacturing into regulated applications.”
“This project represents not just a step forward but a significant leap for the entire industry, promising enhanced efficiency and improved quality across the board,” says Richard Huff, director of Industry Consortia and Partnerships at ASTM International. “Our involvement underscores the team's commitment to supporting standardization efforts that enhance operational qualifications and maintaining compliance in additive manufacturing.”
Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.
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