Page 14 - 3D Metal Printing Fall 2019

3D FEATURE
Q&A With a
Software Expert
Brad Rothenberg, cofounder and CEO of New York, NY- based nTopology, provider of nTop Platform engineering software for additive manufacturing (AM), discusses the current state of 3D metal printing and its future. Spoiler alert: He’s really excited.
CAD tools, and that the mesh files they have to work with are too big. The engi- neering software industry has been based on a specific type of digital model (a sur- face-based boundary representation), which is okay when manufacturing a sim- ple part. In order to represent the level of data necessary to take advantage of AM, new ways of representing the 3D geometry are necessary.
3DMP: How does nTop Platform address these challenges?
Rothenberg: The industry has strug- gled to capitalize on AM and other advanced processes because modeling, optimizing, testing and simply changing designs just does not work. It takes too long and it is frustrating.
We have commercialized a more reli- able and faster technology to represent the 3D geometry called a function-based representation. This means that modeling operations do not fail, even when adding millions of little fillets between a lattice and a solid. Additionally, the model is much lighter weight, and evaluates in par- allel, so that we can leverage processor cores on the CPU and GPU.
In addition, teams can engage in col- laborations resulting in better geometries and more cost-effective, durable products that quickly can go to market. Difficult challenges in creating lightweight lattices, conformal cooling, functional-structure experiments and production can be over- come. For example, the final step in
BY JOE JANCSURAK, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
3D Metal Printing: What excites you most about 3D design and metal 3D and their potential?
Rothenberg: 3D printing brings about incredible new capabilities such as mate- rials. I’m most excited about producing new software to fully maximize these capabilities for end users so that they can ship higher-performing products faster.
3DMP: Where do you see 3D design and 3D metal printing having the greatest impact in terms of applications and mar- kets?
Rothenberg: The greatest impact today is on low-volume parts with high-perfor- mance requirements. Today you see many successful production applications in aerospace and medical. Moving forward, 3D metal printing will impact other indus- tries such as automotive and consumer electronics. 3D printing does not yet offer the same economies of scale as some other manufacturing technologies, but as the cost comes down and the design process becomes more accessible, we will see many more high-volume applications where performance or customization is necessary.
3DMP: Please describe how advance- ments in iteration capability and speed of iteration are transforming 3D printed
part designs?
Rothenberg: We are seeing better, more
functional parts coming off of machines that build correctly the first time.
3DMP: Where are we when it comes to advancements in 3D metal printing equipment and 3D software? Is one lead- ing the other, or are they on parallel paths?
Rothenberg: We believe that software, hardware and materials must be deeply connected for an engineer to realize an optimized design for AM. Over the next few months, you will hear more about architected (multiphase and/or cellular) materials and how our software enables engineers to capture design requirements for specific materials, use simulation to optimize for a specific process, and define manufacturing constraints for specific processes. Once finalized, we output the design directly to manufacture as slices. To complete the loop, we’ll also take in scan data of an as-printed part and use that to compensate the geometry for the next iteration.
3DMP: What are some of the greatest 3D metal printing challenges from a soft- ware perspective?
Rothenberg: The greatest challenges heard from customers: They can’t create the intended geometry in their traditional
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