Michigan Engineering News
Dyndrite LPBF Pro 3D printing software now supports software from U-M startup Ulendo, which helps ensure metal components that match their intended design.
Experts
By preventing excessive heat from distorting 3D-printed metal parts, new software developed at a University of Michigan startup, Ulendo Technologies Inc., can reduce the time and cost of manufacturing.
The software helps optimize laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) printers that work with Dyndrite’s LPBF Pro software system. Parts printed with LPBF start with a tray of metal powder. Lasers heat the powder so that it melts into the shape of the desired part, but if the part is made in a simple sequence, regions become too hot and warp.
Ulendo’s program, which grew out of U-M research, optimizes the heating sequence so that the final part is true to its design. In addition, it prevents residual stress—stresses that are locked into the product even when outside forces are no longer acting on it.
Called Ulendo HC for heat compensation, it is the first add-in program compatible with LPBF Pro, and it has been shown to cut deformation by 50% and residual stress by 88%. This means less trial and error with expensive raw materials and less need for post-production treatments to reduce deformation, significantly reducing costs.
“When working with high cost materials or large, complex builds, even one failed build can significantly impact the bottom line,” said Brenda Jones, Ulendo’s CEO. “Ulendo HC aims to eliminate these issues, improving the profitability and reliability of LPBF as a production tool.”
Chinedum Okwudire, a U-M professor of mechanical engineering, founded Ulendo in 2018 to solve challenges facing the adoption and scaling of advanced manufacturing processes—speeding up manufacturing with higher quality and more repeatable results. His research focuses on aspects of manufacturing automation that include nano-positioning, machining, distributed manufacturing and smart manufacturing systems.
“It is exciting to see our research on SmartScan is gradually making it out into the real world through our partnership with Ulendo and Dyndrite,” Okwudire said. “There is still a lot of research we are doing on this topic, but we want to make sure that it is use-inspired by working early and closely with industry.”
For Dyndrite CEO Harshil Goel, the company’s goal is to enable its customers to print new materials faster.
“Our tools can be combined with tools like the one Ulendo provides to accelerate this goal,” he said. “We welcome Ulendo as the first company to provide add-in software to the Dyndrite LPBF Pro platform.
“With the addition of Ulendo HC to the platform, we are working toward our collaborative vision of Dyndrite LPBF Pro as a powerful metal 3D printing engine into which innovative companies like Ulendo can integrate their software add-ins and features. I’m excited to see what new ways Ulendo will use our powerful core tools to achieve previously difficult prints for our customer base.”
In the 3D printing realm, Okwudire’s team previously developed software that reduces the impact of vibration on the finished product. The technology essentially serves as a translator between the commands that would print the part in a perfect world, and how the machine needs to compensate for vibrations in the real world. It works for printers that mechanically move a printhead.
Called Ulendo VC (for vibration compensation), this product is now being commercialized by the company.
Metal 3D printing is a growing field. Earlier this month, European Space Agency astronauts aboard the International Space Station printed the first metal part in orbit.
