Hexagon industrialises additive manufacturing with software suite

Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division announced a new software suite designed to enable manufacturers to adopt additive manufacturing (AM) on an industrial scale by offering scalability, reliability, and repeatability in their AM operations.

Named the ‘HxGN Additive Manufacturing Suite’, this software package draws on Hexagon's extensive experience in AM and machine shop production. The suite consolidates four of Hexagon’s leading software tools to promote operational excellence in machine shops and 3D printing service bureaus by:

• Facilitating efficient part design, product reverse-engineering, and CAD agnostic model preparation with DESIGNER, Hexagon’s CAD solution for manufacturing.
• Enabling build preparation for any metal Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) AM printer, incorporating effective support structures and optimal slicing and hatching with AM STUDIO.
• Assisting manufacturers in swiftly estimating costs, identifying manufacturing issues, and optimising workflows, printing strategies, and build orientation with Simufact Additive, which ensures the manufacturing process is refined early in the product lifecycle.
• Guaranteeing that post-process CNC machining of metal AM parts is highly optimised, precise, and efficient with Hexagon’s ESPRIT EDGE, powered by AI and digital twin technology.

The challenge of conducting AM at an industrial level today lies in the diverse, often incompatible set of tools that complicate the scaling and repetition of processes globally. Furthermore, the market's existing solutions are generally geared towards prototyping, and their complexity and high costs limit their use in manufacturing applications.

The HxGN Additive Manufacturing Suite addresses these issues as a manufacturing-focused, high-performance 3D printing software solution that is machine independent and CAD agnostic. It brings agility and repeatability to shop floors, free from the constraints of using individual tools from multiple vendors or being locked into machine-specific software. This suite from Hexagon is compatible with existing CAD software, metal Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) printers, and CNC machines for post-processing, which helps accelerate manufacturing processes and reduce costs.

Additionally, the suite enables manufacturers to collaborate and automate workflows and share best practice using Nexus, Hexagon’s open digital reality platform designed to accelerate innovation and bring ideas to life faster than ever before.

Chuck Mathews, General Manager, Production Software at Hexagon, said: “Additive manufacturing is a technology at the edge of industrial adoption, ready to be scaled up and used to produce high-quality parts for critical applications in a range of industries. This new suite provides the capabilities and tools for manufacturers to increase the use of additive technologies via streamlined workflows that deliver efficiency, scalability and reliability to the AM process. Manufacturers can now build on time, on budget and at increased scale with AM thanks to Hexagon’s Additive Manufacturing Suite.”

Parth Joshi, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, said: “The demand to scale additive manufacturing is there, but manufacturers need to be able to automate time-intensive processes and optimise production virtually before building any parts. This new suite complements Hexagon’s extensive additive manufacturing portfolio perfectly, and support for other AM technologies will be added in the future as we continue to empower operational excellence in AM across industries from medical to aerospace and beyond.”