Hexagon and Stratasys unlock three-D-revealed PEKK’s light-weight capability for aerospace engineers with simulation | Aerospace Engineering | aerospace

 Aerospace Engineering

Hexagon and Stratasys unlock three-D-revealed PEKK’s light-weight capability for aerospace engineers with simulation

Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division and Stratasys, a leader in polymer 3-d printing solutions, have implemented Hexagon’s simulation generation to capture the behavior of Stratasys’ high-performance, extremely-lightweight Antero strengthened polyether ketone (PEKK) substances and its additive manufacturing strategies. These carefully proven simulations provide Stratasys customers specific insight to be able to lightweight additives and introduce new sustainable planes and spacecraft faster.

Three-D-published plastic parts offer transformative light-weight for aerospace, lowering strength use and growing the range of new planes. When the fabric and approaches are fully exploited by product designers, it could also reduce the price caused by over-engineering and the waste and lead times of conventional production. However, the adoption of plastics and additive methods for structural additives has remained gradual because of the industry’s safety-important nature and guidelines. Providing engineering groups with the simulation equipment to validate that those materials will reap the specified element performance when synthetic is the “missing hyperlink”, permitting designers to apply these breakthroughs these days.

Rigorously demonstrated multi-scale models of these new high-performance aerospace-accredited materials — Stratasys Antero 840CN03 and Antero 800NA — have now been delivered to Hexagon’s Digimat substances change the environment, with associated print procedure parameters from Stratasys’ aerospace-equipped 3-D printers. Using these exact proprietary fashions, engineers can create digital twins that appropriately are expecting how components revealed with the selected material and accredited aerospace-equipped Stratasys printer will perform in a digital truth with real-global use instances and certification assessments earlier than any physical prototypes are manufactured.

This pie-shaped component is part of the NASA’s Orion spacecraft hatch cover assembly. It was 3D printed using Stratasys Antero 840CN03, a PEKK-based thermoplastic with low outgassing and consistent electrostatic dissipative (ESD) properties. Antero 840CN03 gives manufacturers a high-performance, ESD-compliant 3D printing material that meets demanding applications such as space flight. Image courtesy of Stratasys Inc.

Developed to be open, the Digimat software program offers producers the potential to lay out lighter elements that can fit metals in performance and avoid expensive over-engineering using their desired finite detail evaluation (FEA) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) equipment. Moreover, organizations that use Digimat together with Hexagon’s MSC Nastran and MSC Apex will boost the certification and documentation of their paintings.

The Antero materials are already being used on the cutting fringe of aerospace engineering, bringing predominant improvements to the truth on time, including Lockheed Martin the use of Antero 840CN03 to create NASA’s Orion spacecraft docking hatch cover. More product development groups can apply and de-risk Stratasys' aerospace additive manufacturing solutions to make rigorous virtual engineering and virtual production feasible with those new simulation tools.

Aziz Tahiri, vice chairman of world aerospace and protection for Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence department, said: “As the aerospace enterprise maintains to push for extra sustainable designs, unlocking the lightweight ability of thermoplastics and 3-D printing will be key. By leveraging the energy of our simulation generation, manufacturers benefit get entry to proprietary records so their engineers can ‘work the problem’ with reliable statistics. We’re excited to peer how this subsequent chapter with Stratasys will help the industry create lighter, more potent designs in any design engineering device with greater self-assurance and less value and assist deliver the next-gen plane to marketplace quicker.”

Foster Ferguson, aerospace enterprise section chief, Stratasys, said: “The Antero 840CN03 and Antero 800NA thermoplastics offer unparalleled electricity, warmness, and chemical resistance. When blended with Hexagon’s simulation insights and actionable information, those three-D printed substances’ capability to update certain applications of aluminum and metallic factors to developing use within the aerospace industry. We consider they meet manufacturers’ increasingly more complex overall performance wishes, and with the aid of combining modern modeling software with 3-d printing, can lessen manufacturing timelines from months to days.”

Through the partnership among Stratasys and Hexagon, which has spanned extra than a decade, numerous high-performance thermoplastic materials — together with Ultem 9085, Ultem 9085 CG, Ultem 1010, and Nylon12CF — were characterized and delivered to Hexagon’s Digimat material modeling software.

Antero materials

· The Antero 840CN03 fabric is a PEKK-primarily based thermoplastic for Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) additive manufacturing that mixes the physical and mechanical features of PEKK with carbon nanotubes for consistent electrostatic dissipative (ESD) homes. The high-performance polymer reveals incredible chemical, and wear resistance, and extremely-low outgassing homes.

· The Antero 800NA material is a PEKK-primarily based FDM thermoplastic with mechanical residences that consist of excessive power, high warmth resistance, sturdiness, and put-on resistance. These qualities make it a lighter opportunity for aluminum and steel in sure use cases. Chemical resistance and minimal outgassing offer suitability for aerospace packages where prototypes and elements are exposed to jet fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluid. Other uses consist of industrial applications in which high power and chemical resistance are wished.