In the light of Hexagon’s future vision of Smarter Factories, cost-effectiveness is the biggest driver for manufacturers. With growing competition, limited resources and environmental awareness, businesses are challenged to maintain and increase healthy revenues and reduce risk. Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence plays a key part in helping manufacturers to achieve this with its MSC Software and Simufact.
Simufact Additive is a Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) simulation tool to help the manufacturer predict the outcome of a specified additive manufacturing process. The software allows the user to identify distortions, cracks and warpages. It will also calculate the distorted geometry for the part to be manufactured to match the original, designed part. The virtual test happens outside of the machine, eliminating the need for experimentation and enabling a stable production line. The process allows the manufacturer to minimise material wastage and maximise operation time, saving costs and reducing risk.
Simufact, however, has gone one step further with its CAE solution to bring the virtual world closer to the real world. Cost estimation for additive manufacturing is an innovative, powerful tool included in the newly released Simufact Additive 2020. Costs can now be estimated for single or multiple parts for several printing strategies, enabling the user to compare, analyse and reduce costs.
Material or powder costs, together with operating costs of the machine, are required by the user as an input. Simufact produces a report for the user to help with the decision-making process. Different currencies can also be selected and converted for strategic and business decisions.
The cost estimation tool increases the ability of manufacturers to set up budgets, forecasts and quotes more accurately. It allows businesses to bring a monetary value to their resources and to manage them effectively. It is only one of many CAE solutions to increase profitability and sustainable growth of both large and small businesses in the industries of engineering and manufacturing.
