AMIS offers advanced job preparation software for powder-based 3D print processes.
While the 3D print world sees battles between the various FFF slicing software options, you might be unaware that there are choices to be made for other 3D print processes. You don’t always have to use the software provided by the equipment manager.
One of the options for powder based processes (such as SLS, MJF, MJ and BJ systems) is AMIS Pro, made by Belgium-based AMIS. These 3D print processes are quite different from typical FFF systems in that the parts are supported by surrounding powder, not support structures.
This means that rather than pasting parts on a 2D build plate, they are instead hovering inside the 3D space of the build volume. That enables the possibility of stacking parts together to occupy as much of the build volume as possible. That is the goal of any production facility using these technologies: get the most possible output from each minute of equipment operation.
The problem, however, is how to do this. What is the optimal arrangement of a given set of parts in a 3D space? You could do this manually, but you would not be fully optimized, and almost certainly it would take an enormous amount of work to do so.
Nesting is the name of this process, and AMIS Pro provides an efficient way to achieve the best build chamber configurations. They say that AMIS Pro can next very complex batches — hundreds of parts — in only seconds. An optimized build volume could make the difference between a profitable and unprofitable job run.
At top you can see an example of a very complex nesting scenario, handled by AMIS Pro.
AMIS Pro also boasts of faster slicing speeds, which is important when there are so many parts to print in a large build chamber.
Finally, AMIS Pro also exposes a number of key functions through APIs for integration with other systems. For example, a manufacturing execution system (MES) could control AMIS Pro as part of a job sequence.
To that end, AMIS announced a partnership with Phasio, an order management system for additive manufacturing. Orders could then be seamlessly dispatched through AMIS Pro as they appear, for example.
If you’re using SLS, MJF, BJ or MJ systems, you might want to take a look at AMIS Pro to optimize your production environment.
Via AMIS
