CADS Additive’s Titan.Core speeds data build for complex Aerospike rocket engine
April 21, 2023
CADS Additive GmbH, a provider of metal Additive Manufacturing software, based in Perg, Austria, reports it has used its Titan.Core build processor to successfully prepare the build data for a complex Aerospike rocket engine in record time.
“The Aerospike is a true first of its kind, as it is the first and largest ever 3D printed rocket engine of this type that was fully designed through computer code and algorithms – with no manual CAD drawing involved,” stated Josefine Lissner, CEO, founder and former Strategic Engineering Lead at Hyperganic Group. “It marks the beginning of a paradigm shift in engineering: On my laptop, I can generate a new variant of this engine about every thirty minutes, while the complexity of the geometry results in many GBs of output data that used to easily break most print-processing software.“
Until its completion, the aerospike (aside from special features) went through the same process steps as any other additively manufactured part. The aerospike was designed using unique algorithms without any manually created CAD data, which allowed the design time to shrink. This shrinkage was not previously reflected in the data side, however, which led the companies to CADS Additive’s Titan.Core build processor.
Titan.Core is based on novel algorithms that are intended to significantly reduce load on working memory during slicing and hatching. As a result, build data can be prepared up to 30 X faster compared to other build processors, even on conventional workstations. The simulation of geometries before Additive Manufacturing can also be done quickly and efficiently, which is why CADS Additive’s complete software solution AM-Studio includes Finite Element warpage simulation as standard.
Aerospike designer Josefine Lissner provided CADS Additive with the geometries for the experiment. The software manufacturer’s team used a standard workstation with up to 3.7 GHz and 64 GB RAM for data preparation. On this, the build processor sliced and hatched the data within 8 minutes and 11 seconds, rendering the build data ready to transfer to the Additive Manufacturing. The available RAM was reportedly not even near exhaustion, with a load of 4 GB.
“Geometries for 3D printing are becoming increasingly complex and the build chambers of 3D printers larger,” stated Peter Leitner, Technology Specialist at CADS Additive. “To prevent data preparation, especially slicing and hatching, from reaching prohibitive levels, we developed Titan.Core. When I first saw the Aerospike at the Rapid + TCT in Detroit back in 2022, I immediately thought of it as exactly the type of part we developed Titan.Core for. The results generated reasons for the fact that the development was worthwhile.“
Josefine Lissner was also reported to be impressed, as the combination of her algorithms for CAD design and the Titan.Core build processor allowed the production of the most complex parts in fractions of the time previously required. This could open up new opportunities for research and development in aeronautics and other industries.
“CADS Additive has achieved a true leap with their new slicer technology,” Lissner continued. “Processing the original Aerospike geometry within 8 minutes demonstrates an improvement of an order of magnitude. This is encouraging to see and paves the way for novel, exciting engineering designs that approach the complexity of nature. We need to dramatically lift the software performance across the entire Additive Manufacturing industry and we are seeing the right steps here.“
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