Revolutionizing Depowdering in Metal Additive Manufacturing: SPR-Pathfinder® PRO

Problem

Metal additive manufacturing (AM), particularly laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), has unlocked the ability to produce intricate components like heat exchangers with channels thinner than a human hair and rocket combustion chambers with complex regenerative cooling circuits. However, these advanced geometries present a significant challenge: depowdering. In aerospace, residual powder in cooling channels poses a certification risk, and in serial production, discovering an undepowderable geometry post-printing leads to rework, delays, and increased costs. Traditional depowdering methods, often relying solely on mechanical processes, lack the precision and intelligence required to handle these complex internal structures.

Solution

Solukon, recognizing the need for intelligent depowdering solutions, has developed the SPR-Pathfinder® PRO, an advanced software upgrade designed to tackle the complexities of modern LPBF geometries. This new version addresses the limitations of the standard SPR-Pathfinder® by introducing several key enhancements:

Key Features of SPR-Pathfinder® PRO

Enhanced Simulation Resolution:

The PRO version supports up to 1,000,000 particles, a 20-fold increase over the standard version, and an unlimited number of voxels. This allows for the accurate computation of even the most intricate internal structures, including sub-millimeter channels and densely packed internal surfaces.

The simulation accurately mimics the part's movement during the cleaning process in the Solukon machine, providing a clear and understandable visualization of the depowdering procedure.

Cross-sectional Inspection:

The software now offers cross-sectional views of the component in all planes (X, Y, and Z), granting operators complete visibility into the part's interior from any direction.

The transparency of the part can be adjusted with high granularity, making it easier to identify powder traps and bottlenecks before printing begins.

Accurate Process-Time Prediction:

SPR-Pathfinder® PRO allows users to predict the exact duration of the depowdering process in their Solukon system. This capability enables manufacturers to integrate depowdering time into their production schedules, eliminating a costly bottleneck.

Additional Benefits

Process Transparency: The Digital-Factory-Tool records all relevant depowdering process data, ensuring maximum transparency. This data can be integrated into a higher-level digital dashboard via OPC UA, providing a comprehensive overview of the entire manufacturing process.

Design for Depowdering: Solukon emphasizes the importance of considering depowderability from the earliest design stages. By treating depowderability as a predictable engineering parameter, manufacturers can validate complex designs before production, leading to fewer iterations, more predictable lead times, and a clearer path to repeatable, documentable postprocessing.

"At Solukon, we have always believed that reliable and intelligent automated depowdering can be achieved when machine, process, and software are aligned," says Andreas Hartmann, CEO and CTO. "The parts our customers print today are more complex than ever, and we have grown alongside that ambition. SPR-Pathfinder® PRO reflects years of listening to the market and advancing our software in step with the most demanding AM applications."

Results

The introduction of SPR-Pathfinder® PRO marks a significant leap forward in the field of metal additive manufacturing. By addressing the critical challenges of depowdering complex geometries, Solukon has enabled manufacturers to:

Enhance Process Efficiency: The ability to accurately predict and manage depowdering times allows for better production scheduling and resource allocation.

Improve Quality Control: The enhanced simulation and inspection capabilities ensure that powder traps and bottlenecks are identified and addressed before printing, reducing the risk of defects and rework.

Facilitate Design Innovation: By making depowderability a predictable engineering parameter, manufacturers can confidently explore more complex and innovative designs, knowing that they can be reliably depowdered.

##