(July 19th 2019, London, United Kingdom) One of Betatype's greatest talents is the collaborations that it grows — both within the additive manufacturing (AM) industry and across industrial sectors. Embracing opportunities for collaboration extends projects and brings a higher standard of result in ways that single entities can, and do, struggle to achieve in isolation. Betatype's recent partnership with nTopology is one such project that epitomises this philosophy. The two companies teamed up to develop and make a functionally optimized rocket nozzle part.
 
nTopology designed the base mechanical structure of the part, using its nTop Platform software to change the 3D model of the nozzle part into an implicit model. The team then used nTopology's advanced topology optimization and simulation tools to enhance the design of the part. Working together with Betaype and using the capabilities of its distinctive Engine and Process Control technology, they were able to further boost the design for metal additive manufacturing; specifically the laser powder bed fusion (PBF) strategy. This application of Betatype's software technology enabled a significant increase in productivity for the complicated metal rocket nozzle part. For this specific project, Betatype achieved a noteworthy decrease in build time on the AM system from 25 hours down to 18 hours, or 28%. Commenting on the results, Betatype Founder and CEO, Sarat Babu stated: 'Betatype's partnership with nTopology is an excellent demo of how we can work with gifted manufacturers to make additive manufacturing perform. The application clearly shows the benefits of combining the functional design and optimization skills of our partner with process optimization through our technology to achieve productivity levels that would not otherwise be possible with a traditional metal LPBF platform.'
 
Brad Rothenberg, Founder and CEO nTopology moreover stated: 'For serial production in additive manufacturing to work, it must make business sense. Through the partnership between nTopology and Betatype, and our shared idea in solving engineering trouble by joining design, simulation, and manufacturing processes direct, we are able to present a strong business case for additive manufacturing. We help our customers to design and manufacture complex parts with speed, efficiency and reliability. We could not be happier with the results of this rocket nozzle case study and are looking ahead to working on more joint projects.' The rocket nozzle part was built in titanium on a Renishaw RenAM250 system by Betatype. It was a test part created to highlight how different solutions can be integrated through partnerships. The capabilities of nTop Platform demonstrated how functionality can be improved through the application of intelligent design, while ensuring the part is fit for purpose. However, the input from the partnership with Betatype illustrates how the design can only take you so far, and complexity and functionality does not have to come at the expense of productivity. Productivity is a crucial driver for the uptake of AM, and it is here that partnering with Betatype can bring significant returns through the application of its unique technology portfolio for metal AM.



This article is originally posted on Tronserve.com