Carbon, the 3D manufacturing company behind Digital Light Synthesis™ (DLS), has announced a suite of new software tools to advance 3D printing.
Users of Carbon’s resin-based 3D printer range will now be able to benefit from software that allows first-time printing, optimization of support material and minimizes the requirement for post-processing.
The update is supported by a cloud-based finite element analysis (FEA) that allows simulation of 3D prints.
The trifecta of 3D printing
Roy Goldman, Director of Software at Carbon gave further details, “Carbon is often recognized for its innovations in hardware and materials science, but our software is what enables all of these pieces to work together seamlessly.”
“Carbon’s software creates a digital canvas on which every cubic millimeter of a part can be designed, controlled, and optimized before it’s printed. We’ve built this software from the ground up, providing our customers with a comprehensive view of the design process that helps ensure a part performs as desired, and enables fast printing and easy post-processing. These new FEA-backed automated support tools are the first of their kind and take our software to a whole new level.”
With the auto-support function, Carbon joins Materialise, and other enterprises in the 3D printing industry, who offer this feature for resin based machines. While increasingly attention has turned to the time spent on post-production, fewer conversations are had around the work necessary to prepare a 3D file for printing – or pre-production.
During this years formnext keynote presentation, Terry Wohlers cited work done by Premium AEROTEC that pre and post processing can account for 70% of the costs when working with metal additive manufactured parts. While both material costs and 3D printing speeds for resins are generally faster, tools to further reduce both are welcome and necessary if 3D printing is to move closer to production applications.
Auto support from Carbon will analyze parts and facilitate first time prints, users will also be prompted when areas with additional support material are required. To ensure that finished parts are not compromised or marred by marks left from support removal, Carbon has introduced a fence support option. This is designed to reduce both the amount of support material used and also 3D print parts with fewer support artifacts.
Changing the game
Speaking about the update Carbon CEO and co-founder, Dr. Joseph DeSimone said, “Carbon’s core technology is enabling new business models that inherently need new software.”
“Printing parts on demand, re-purposing a fleet of machines to print a range of parts daily or even hourly, local production for local markets – these are all challenges big manufacturing and ERP companies have talked about for years, but progress has largely been stagnant because the underlying technology hasn’t existed. Carbon is changing the game by solving each of these problems head on, moving beyond prototyping to real-world production at scale.”
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