Additive Manufacturing Design for Wärtsilä

Four potential metals were considered for the final additive manufactured component, and design objectives included restrictions on manufacturing cost and material usage.  The customer also wanted to understand how quickly this type of engineering and design task could be completed.

Image: Original welded pressing tool design

Simulation-driven design approach

To tackle this project, Etteplan assembled a team that included experts in AM production, AM design, topology optimization and print process simulation.  The design workflow started with definition of available design space, boundary conditions and maximum potential loads that the tool would be exposed to during operation. 

Altair OptiStruct and SolidThinking Inspire software were used to run topology optimization and FEM analyses for design concept generation.  Inspire PolyNURBS were used to generate smooth CAD surfaces over the topology optimized results while allowing the organic features of the design to be maintained. OptiStruct was then used for performance evaluation of the final component design, and Additive Works Amphyon software, part of the Altair Partner Alliance (APA), was utilized to simulate the print process to ensure that the component was printable and that maximum distortion levels were within reason.

Image: Etteplan’s simulation driven AM design workflow for the Wärtsilä tooling case