Sanjay Gangal interviews Rani Richardson, Director at CATIA Technical Sales for Light Weight Engineering at Dassault Systèmes and discusses the company’s strategy for additive manufacturing (AM).
SG: To begin, tell us about the state of additive solutions at Dassault Systèmes.
RR: We have developed a solution that contains five pillars for additive manufacturing. We put them into a suite of tools starting with silicone material engineering with the virtual material lab and we are able to certify existing materials or create new ones on the molecular level. Second, we moved to function-driven generative design, which is what I concentrate on where we can create optimal shapes for traditional and additive manufacturing, using topology optimization.
RR: Third, is the process simulation and production planning, where we can actually see what's happening during the print process and make any changes that are necessary for optimizing the process. We move to the global production system with manufacturing execution systems (MES) and what's happening on the shop floor. This includes scheduling all the way through to delivery and everything that occurs in between. The fifth pillar is the 3DEXPERIENCE marketplace where we connect internal ecosystems with external service providers to provide a safe business transaction where you can perform manufacturing or prototyping.
