Velo3D, Inc. (Campbell, CA) announced the release of its Flow 3.0 print preparation software. The new version supports larger models of parts that are able to be manufactured on the company’s Sapphire XC (Extra Capacity) printer, which can produce parts that are 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 by up to 5x compared to Velo3D’s Sapphire printer.
Velo3D’s Flow 3.0 print preparation software enables engineers to upload a traditional CAD file of a part they want to print. By eliminating the need for DfAM, Velo3D enables its customers to design the mission-critical parts they want and then print them.
Flow 3.0 utilizes a generalized set of recipes to 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.
With Flow 3.0, the print preparation software can 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.
The software also includes revised scheduling rules to achieve 98% efficiency of the Sapphire XC’s eight lasers, contributing to the printer’s 5x productivity improvement.
