A global frontrunner in 3D design software, Dassault Systèmes, have announced today that after two years refining an extensive benchmarking process, Airbus Group will be expanding their additive manufacturing programs with extended use of Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform for design, simulation and production processes.
Dassault Systèmes’s associate design and simulation applications will be utilised by Airbus Group as a component in the “Co-Design to Target” industry solution experience, in particular the additive manufacturing of prototyping, tooling and aeroplane parts for both test flights and commercial aircraft production. By employing Dassault Systèmes’s additive manufacturing platform, Airbus Group will have digital stability when optimising designs as confirming on a virtual platform each stage of the additive manufacturing process is made possible. The advantage of Dassault Systèmes’ applications and individual expertise in the additive manufacturing field allows Airbus Group to broaden both design and engineering options when abiding by the additive manufacturing requirements for the production of parts and tools.
An alternative to the traditional production process, additive manufacturing – or 3D printing, is progressively expanding its use within the aerospace industry to large-scale production. Additive manufacturing within the “Co-Design to Target” industry solution experience offers flexibility when undergoing part design, testing and production and reduces waste material and manufacturing costs often associated with complex aircraft engineering without placing performance or strength at risk.
“Numerous projects across Airbus are accelerating the use of additive manufacturing to produce prototypes as well as production components potentially delivering lighter and less expensive parts that meet technological, performance, safety and cost standards,” said Robert Nardini, Senior Vice President Engineering Airframe, Airbus. “Airbus has long used Dassault Systèmes’ simulation applications to accelerate the structural analysis and virtual testing of aircraft and now we can define a new way of designing parts by leveraging simulation-based design to better answer aviation market needs.”
Dominique Florack, Senior Executive Vice President, Research & Development, Dassault Systèmes, added: “Additive manufacturing creates new opportunities in many different areas such as remote fabrication for support and maintenance, rapid prototyping for realising new concepts and experiences and, perhaps most importantly, developing designs that were heretofore impossible to fabricate.
“With this approach, Airbus Group will be able to take advantage of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s next generation automated design assistant for parts, whether they are 3D printed or not, thus accelerating a new wave of transformation in the aerospace industry. With the 3DEXPERIENCE platform we are delivering an end to end solution including all engineering parameters for the additive manufacturing of parts inclusive of material science, functional specification, generative design, 3D printing optimisation, production and certification.”
