By moi-même (Torino), via Wikimedia Commons
Turin
Turin will play host to the 6th European Altair Conference
Altair has announced that it will be hosting a technical session and a round table discussion about additive layer manufacturing at the 6th European Altair Conference in Turin next month.
The roll call of presenters at the April 23rd event will include a professor with expert knowledge of Airbus, EADS engineers, a speaker from EOS and researchers from RWTH Aachen and ILT Fraunhofer, as well as from the Technical University in Hamburg.
Each presenter will showcase their works in the area of additive manufacturing - which is a form of 3D printing - and after the presentation session, there will be a round table discussion addressing how to leverage the full potential of resource-friendly component design by applying simulation-driven design methods.
Moreover, the seminar will address the commercial aspects of additive manufacturing, in addition to further research and development needs in this area.
Dr Pietro Cervellera, aerospace sales director at Altair, stated: "Additive manufacturing methods and 3D printing are becoming increasingly popular.
"Some people even say that additive methods will lead to a revolution in how the industry will manufacture products in the future, and you can definitely assume that 3D printing marks a new era in individual manufacturing, since the flexibility of this method inspires the imagination of many product designers."
One advantage of additive layer manufacturing that often fails to gain the attention it deserves is the potential to manufacture weight and mass-efficient structures without the normal constraints of traditional processes.
To leverage the full lightweight potential of additive layer manufacturing, an optimisation-driven development process has to be used for the structural layout of the components.
There is often a struggle in the design process between designing an ideal shape and then manufacturing a shape economically. With additive manufacturing this can be eliminated as the process enabled the production of arbitrary shapes at similar costs.
Altair has been developing OptiStruct, a tool with which completely new shapes can be discovered by leveraging topology optimisation, for over two decades. This technology inspires lightweight design and saves on thousands of tonnes of material usage and, as a result, contributes to reduced CO2 emissions.
Topology optimisation is the best available design method for creating requirement and load-specific structures, and for enabling the industry to tap the full lightweight potential offered by the use of additive manufacturing structures.
Altair - which also developed the popular HyperWorks computer-aided engineering software - believes this new technology is more than just a series of two systems used one after the other.
On the one hand, it is a symbiotic connection with load-specific shape definition, and on the other it has near unlimited potential for production.
Altair will present and discuss this topic in detail at the 6th European Altair Technology Conference from April 22nd-24th, 2013 at the Lingotto Conference Center in Turin.
The following presentations from technology oriented companies, users and research institutes, will address this topic and present practical examples:
Martin Muir, EADS
Multidisciplinary Optimisation of Business Jet MED Hinge for Production by Additive Manufacturing
Wolfgang Machunze, EADS
Topology Design of a Metallic Load Introduction Bracket Manufactured by ALM
Vito Chinellato, EOS
Sustainability Approach by Design Optimization for Advanced Layer Manufacturing
Simon Merkt, RWTH Aachen/ILT Fraunhofer
Digital Photonic Production - Optimization Potentials by Laser Based Manufacturing
Jannis Kranz, TUHH
Structural Optimization and Laser Additive Manufacturing in Lightweight Design: Barriers and Chances
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vasily Ploshikhin, Airbus Stiftungsprofessur für Integrative Simulation und Engineering von Materialien und Prozessen (ISEMP)
Multi-Scale FEM Simulation of Selective Laser Melting Process
