Published 4/15/2022

3D Printing Software Supports Larger Parts

Velo3D releases version 3.0 of print preparation software Flow, which now supports larger models.

Additive Manufacturing

Edited by: Jenny Rush

Former Senior Managing Editor, Modern Machine Shop

Velo3D Flow 3.0 impeller design shown in XC build chamber.
Photo Credit: Velo3D

Velo3D Inc., an additive manufacturing (AM) technology company, has released its latest version of print preparation software program Flow. Flow 3.0 supports larger models of parts that can be manufactured on the company’s Sapphire XC (Extra Capacity) printer, which can produce parts up to 400% larger than the Sapphire printer. Flow 3.0 also supports the scheduling of additional lasers to maximize the efficiency of the Sapphire XC’s eight 1,000-W lasers and increase productivity.

Velo3D’s Flow 3.0 print preparation software is designed to enable engineers to upload a traditional CAD file of a part they want to print, rather than having to spend additional resources designing it for additive manufacturing (DFAM).

The company says this software is designed to allow customers to freely design mission-critical parts and print them with precision. It uses a generalized set of recipes to precisely prescribe and simulate the layer-by-layer build for the desired part. The software’s composer detects geometric features and applies the corresponding process to achieve that desired outcome. Flow 3.0 uses information from previous layers to inform the print strategy for subsequent layers, which the company says results in better parts and greater design freedom.

The print preparation software is said to reliably generate and leverage meshes of models containing up to hundreds of millions of triangles. The capability is made possible by offloading the computation of larger files to Amazon Web Services. The customer sends a CAD file and receives back a compacted file that can be used on any printer to build the part.

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