Antarctic Bear Introduction: China's 3D printing market is growing rapidly, but China's 3D printing-related software is relatively weak, and there are not many manufacturers willing to spend money (advanced industrial software talents are expensive) and time to develop it.
We know that additive manufacturing refers to a scientific and technological system that "directly" manufactures parts driven by the three-dimensional data of the parts based on the discrete-stacking principle. So, for arc additive manufacturing, can the process from the three-dimensional data of the part to manufacturing really be completed "directly"?
To answer this question, we must first understand what the additive program performed by the arc additive system looks like and how it is generated.
In order to obtain a larger additive range and a freer additive angle, arc additive often uses 6-axis industrial robots as the actuator. The movement trajectory of the robot during additive manufacturing is a complex spatial trajectory composed of tens of thousands or even more "space points". For these tens of thousands of points, it is necessary to optimize the connection sequence between paths, calculate the accessibility of the robot equipment, adjust the point posture, and then add equipment control instructions, process parameter information, etc., in order to generate an additive program that can be executed by the robot.
In practical applications, there are four common programming methods to generate additive programs as mentioned above: direct programming through manual modeling combined with robot offline programming software, programming through subtractive CAM software combined with robot post-processing programs, and programming through other The additive manufacturing CAM software is programmed in conjunction with the robot post-processing program, and the arc additive-specific CAM software is used for programming.
Direct programming through manual modeling combined with robot offline programming software generally refers to manual modeling to plan a simple graphic trajectory, and then generate layer-by-layer trajectories through offset, copy, etc., and complete programming in the robot offline programming software. This method requires that the part model itself cannot be too complex. However, in practical applications, what needs to be realized by additive manufacturing is often product structure design that is difficult or even impossible to process with traditional manufacturing methods. It is difficult to directly split it into regular graphic features. Once there are irregular surfaces and other shapes in the model, It also involves extremely complex mathematical algorithms, and the difficulty of trajectory programming will be beyond human capabilities. Therefore, this programming method is often used to make regular and simple parts such as samples and test blocks, but is not suitable for actual production.
Through combined programming of subtractive CAM software and robot post-processing program, the core idea is that the "bottom-up" of the additive process and the "top-down" of subtractive manufacturing are exactly the opposite processes, so first through the mature and perfect The subtractive CAM software generates a subtractive path trajectory, then "reverses" the order of points in the trajectory to generate a "retrograde" additive path trajectory, generates G code, and then converts the G code into Robot executable program. However, additive and subtractive processes are by no means simple opposite processes. There are many differences in the process factors that need to be considered when planning the trajectory of the two: for example, repeated paths can appear in the removed positions in the path of subtractive materials, but in additive processes, there are many differences. Repeated paths in the process will lead to repeated accumulation and thus produce defects; for example, the change in walking speed of the subtractive trajectory is different from the change required for additive, etc. Therefore, the additive trajectory generated in this way must undergo an extremely large amount of manual intervention and correction, but it is still difficult to fully adapt to the various process characteristics of arc additive. In practical applications, it often takes weeks or even months to complete the programming of a part in this way, and the requirements for programmer's ability and experience are extremely high, so it has no practical value.
Programming is combined with other additive process CAM software and robot post-processing programs. The problem with this method is essentially the same as using subtractive CAM software, which is that the process is not applicable. Since the path planning of additive programs is inseparable from the process, for arc additives, it is necessary to plan reasonable slice filling methods, path sequences, arc starting and closing positions, and robot welding gun postures to minimize the number of arc starting and closing times, and target special features such as corners. Optimization of positions such as , overlap, and thin walls, such as trajectory optimization, speed optimization, etc., all determine the molding quality of arc additives. Therefore, directly using programs generated by other additive process CAM software will cause many quality problems during the additive process. In order to produce parts with qualified quality, we must rely on a large amount of manual intervention programming, thus falling into the same dilemma as using subtractive CAM software programming.
At this point, the answer to the opening question has actually been revealed. In order to truly achieve a "direct" connection from design to manufacturing, arc additive-specific CAM software that can fully adapt to process characteristics to realize automatic planning and intelligent optimization of additive programs is the only solution.
However, the development of universal, practical, and easy-to-use CAM software dedicated to arc additive manufacturing requires a huge investment and cannot be accomplished in a day. It not only requires high-end technical R&D talents who can integrate computer graphics, robot kinematics or materials technology across disciplines, but also has rich hardware integration experience. It also requires long-term and continuous production practice to continuously accumulate process experience. This is why when we look at the global market, although many CAM software are "compatible" with arc additives, CAM software dedicated to arc additives that can truly be used in production practice is rare and expensive.
Currently on the market, some arc additive complete systems, such as WAAM3D's RoboWAAM and GEFERTEC's 3DMP, are equipped with system-specific software; some "hardcore" arc additive users use self-developed customized software. In addition, they are relatively mature. The commercially available CAM software for arc additive manufacturing mainly includes METAL XL and IngoPNT. In addition, Adaxis, a French-Swedish multinational startup founded in 2021, is developing an unreleased software platform that is also worthy of attention.
In November 2019, the Dutch company MX3D launched the commercial version of the software product METAL XL. In the past few years, MX3D has been serving as an additive service provider, providing customers with arc additive printing services. The classic "3D printed metal bridge" case in the industry is MX3D's famous work. Starting in 2019, MX3D Company began to transform to provide users with equipment, software and process solutions.
Developed by Xingfa Technology from Nanjing, the highland of domestic arc additive manufacturing technology, IungoPNT is a domestic software product that was officially launched on the market as early as 2017. Since the launch of research and development in 2013, Xianstructure Technology has been aiming at: "Providing users with "click-to-print" intelligent arc additive-specific CAM software to help arc additives enter tens of millions of factories. In the past 10 years, it has continued to Invest in research and development to iteratively optimize products. IngoPNT has undergone a large number of user verifications, and was selected as the designated software for the country's first national-level arc additive skills competition in 2021.
The development of any emerging manufacturing technology requires the coordinated development of five core elements: equipment, software, materials, processes, and talents. Each one is indispensable.
For arc additive technology, the process itself has the same origin as the welding process with a long history. Therefore, the equipment, processes, and material experience reserves corresponding to the huge robot welding application market should become the soil for the development of arc additive technology. . However, the reality is that to this day, the application of arc additive technology is still limited to a few scenarios. The reason is that the shortcomings of wooden barrels are the lack of two elements in early software and talent, which restricts the development of the industry.
It is believed that with the emergence and development of dedicated CAM software, the threshold for professional and technical talents has been continuously lowered. Users can focus more and more on process and product development, thereby continuously exploring the potential of arc additive technology.
Gezhi Academy + IungoPNT Technology: IungoPNT subscription service empowers users
In order to allow more users who want to explore arc additive technology to conduct process verification and development at a lower threshold and promote the development of the industry, Gezhi Academy and Yanstructure Technology jointly launched the IungoPNT software subscription service for corporate R&D and education and scientific research.
The subscription version of the software includes nine core functions of the basic version of IungoPNT, including: additive project management, multi-task management, additive parameter configuration, automatic planning of additive programs, one-click start and stop, layout simulation, path simulation, and real-time monitoring of process parameters.
The subscription fee is charged annually. Users can subscribe year by year as needed, and quickly complete hardware deployment through the derivation box, and upgrade existing robot welding equipment to arc additive systems, greatly saving users initial investment. The subscription service is equipped with arc additive equipment operation certification courses created by the original teaching and research team of the first national competition training camp, as well as a complete online knowledge base to ensure that users' technicians can quickly get started with zero foundation and further empower users.
