Venkat Vedula, executive director of the Raytheon Technologies Additive Manufacturing Process and Capability Center, examines a small turbojet engine with a 3D printed main body.

Defects such as keyholing, lack of fusion, balling-up, and surface roughness were a few of the issues that the software has overcome. The new simulation tool promises to put an end to some of the challenges in metal AM processes that can become very expensive. This analysis will help designers and engineers evaluate the print outcome and test combinations of materials, geometries, and print processes. As described by Hexagon’s director of global business development, Jeff Robertson, “the solver will run part level simulations in minutes – many orders of magnitude faster than existing solver technologies.”Ĭombining technologies from Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, which empowers customers to put data to work, and Raytheon’s engine maker business, Pratt and Whitney, the new software will predict defects before the expensive and time-consuming printing process begins.

Defense giant Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX) has partnered with software leader Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) to release a breakthrough metal additive manufacturing process simulation software solution that helps predict thermal history (or heat flux) and defects at the scan vector and powder layer (meso) scale.

Hexagon 3d software