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3. EDITOR
Dr Ian Campbell
Loughborough Design School,
Loughborough University,
Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU,
UK
R.I.Campbell@lboro.ac.uk
REGIONALEDITORS
Professor David Bourell
University of Texas at Austin, Dept of
Mechanical Engineering, 1 University
Station C2200, Austin Tx 78712-0292,
USA
dbourell@mail.utexas.edu
Professor Ian Gibson
School of Engineering, Deakin
University, Waurn Ponds Campus,
Geelong, Australia
ian.gibson@deakin.edu.au
MANAGINGEDITOR
Sarah Hill
shill2@emeraldinsight.com
PUBLISHER
Daniel Jopling
djopling@emeraldinsight.com
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Jade Turvey
jturvey@emeraldinsight.com
EDITORIALADVISORYBOARD
Professor Sung-Hoon Ahn, Seoul
National University, Korea
Professor Paulo Jorge da Silva Bártolo,
University of Manchester, UK
Professor Deon de Beer, North-West
University, South Africa
Professor Alain Bernard, Ecole Centrale
de Nantes, France
Dr Richard Bibb, Loughborough
University, UK
Dr U Chandrasekhar, Gas Turbine
Research Establishment, Bangalore,
India
Dr Khershed Cooper, National Science
Foundation, USA
Dr Denis Cormier, Rochester Institute of
Technology, USA
Professor Phil Dickens, University of
Nottingham, UK
Professor Olaf Diegel, University of
Lund, Sweden
Professor Jerry Fuh, National University
of Singapore, Singapore
Dr Jorge Ramos Grez, Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
Professor Chua Chee Kai, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore
Professor Jean-Pierre Kruth, Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Professor Gideon N. Levy, TTA
Technology Turn Around, Switzerland
Professor Toshiki Niino, University of
Tokyo, Japan
Professor B. Ravi, IIT Bombay, India
Professor David Rosen, Georgia
Institute of Technology, USA
Dr Tim Sercombe, The University of
Western Australia, Australia
Professor Brent Stucker, University of
Louisville, USA
Professor Wei Sun, Drexel University,
USA and Tsinghua University, People’s
Republic of China
Mr Jukka Tuomi, Aalto University,
Finland
Mr Terry Wohlers, Wohlers Associates,
Inc., USA
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
For the past two decades, Rapid Prototyping Journal has been at the heart of all things 3D
printing. As the very first journal dedicated to additive manufacturing, RPJ has witnessed
exciting and surprising developments from around the world, publishing a wide range of
seminal articles along the way.
Today, with an explosion of interest in 3D printing and its applications, RPJ is an indispensable
resource for anyone connected with the field. Since 2005, papers published in RPJ have been
downloaded over half a million times, and the journal continues to provide an international
perspective on what remains a dynamic and ever-changing area.
Next year, the journal will publish 72 papers compared to the 54 it has in 2014 – a 33 per cent
increase in output, which is testament to the editorial team’s commitment to continue to
showcase the very best research from across the globe.
This commemorative brochure has been commissioned to reflect on how far both RPJ and the
research field have come, and to begin to imagine how far we may yet go.
Daniel Jopling, Publisher | Emerald Group Publishing Limited
EDITORIALTEAM
3
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/rpj.htm
4. RPJ is the world’s leading journal covering additive
manufacturing (AM) and related technologies.
The journal concentrates on development in a
manufacturing environment but covers applications in
other areas, such as medicine and construction. Papers
published in this field are generally scattered over a
wide range of international publications, none of which
actually specialises in this particular discipline. Hence,
this journal is a vital resource for anyone involved in
AM. It draws together important refereed papers on all
aspects of AM from distinguished sources all over the
world, to give a truly international perspective on this
dynamic and exciting area.
COVERAGE
• Benchmarking
• Reviews of processes/applications
• CAD and other software aspects
• Enhancement of existing processes
• Integration with design process
• Management implications; materials aspects
• New AM processes
• Novel applications of AM parts
• AM for tooling
• Medical applications
• Reverse engineering in relation to AM
INDEXING AND ABSTRACTING SERVICES
RPJ is indexed and abstracted in leading service
providers, including:
• Academic Source Complete
• Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities in
Computer Science - Business Information Systems
and Management
• CSA Engineering Research Database
• CSA High Technology; Research Database
with Aerospace
• CSA Materials Research Database with METADEX
• CSA Technology Research Database
• EBSCO
• EI Compendex
• Engineering Index
• INSPEC
• (ISI) Current Contents®
: Engineering, Computing
and Technology
• (ISI) Materials Science Citation Index®
• (ISI) SciSearch®
: Science Citation Index Expanded
• Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition
• ProQuest Science Journals
• QUALIS
• Recent Advances in Manufacturing Database (RAM)
• Scopus
• TOC Premier
• Zetoc
WHYRPJ?
4
SUBMIT YOUR RESEARCH NOW!
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rpj
5. THE FACTS
FROM ITS INCEPTION, RPJ HAS
LED THE WAY IN ADDITIVE
MANUFACTURING PUBLISHING,
AND THE JOURNAL CONTINUES
TO GROW IN TERMS OF BOTH
PUBLISHED ARTICLES AND
IMPACT FACTOR
[All statistics correct as of September 2014]
USA220
UK79
CHINA70
SINGAPORE33
GERMANY32
HONGKONG27
INDIA27
ITALY21
TAIWAN18
INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE –
PAPERS PUBLISHED BY COUNTRY:
SJR SCIMAGO RANK (2013):
650,000
article downloads
RPJ will publish
33% more papers in the 2015
volume than it did in 2014
(72 compared to 54)
World’s first journal dedicated to
additive manufacturing
submissions since 2004
Over 600published items
(1st
quartile)
Industrial and
Manufacturing
Engineering:
Mechanical
Engineering:
(1st
quartile)
JCR RANKING (2013):
Engineering,
Mechanical:
Materials Science,
Multidisciplinary:
(2nd
quartile) (3rd
quartile)
Scopus citations in 2013
2013 Impact Factor: 1.156
(16% increase on 2012)
5
6. To begin, could you offer a brief history of RPJ and
how you came to be involved in the publication?
IC:That goes back to 1993 when I moved to the
University of Nottingham and joined what was then
called the Rapid Prototyping Research Group. There
were a few other members of the group, including its
leader Phil Dickens, who were looking for places to
publish the research work they were doing on what
was called rapid prototyping at the time.
It was quite difficult to find any journal that was really
prepared to accept papers on the entire process – they
might accept papers about the materials, for example,
but it was such a new research area at that time that
there weren’t any journals that were specifically aimed
towards it. Myself and another colleague at Nottingham
at the time, Professor Ian Gibson, really thought we
should do something about it. So we planned the scope
of the journal, thought about some people who could
join the Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) and then went
round a couple of different publishers to propose our
idea. The mainstream engineering publishers weren’t
interested – I think they were quite short-sighted in
a way – whereas what is now called Emerald, at the
time MCB Publications, were very interested, so that’s
how our relationship began. Papers started coming in
in 1994 and the first issue came out at the start of 1995
with myself as Lead Editor and Ian Gibson as co-Editor.
IG:Ian Campbell and I had a series of discussions
when we were colleagues at Nottingham University.
We believed that there was need for a journal that
focused on the field of rapid prototyping. We spent
a lot of time putting together the requirements for
the journal and working with a series of potential
publishers. We were very impressed with the Journal
of Integrated Manufacturing Systems that was
published by MCB and wanted something similar for
our new one. It was a good decision and we have been
delighted with the support of Emerald ever since.
Shortly after we decided to go with Emerald, I received
a job offer from Hong Kong University. It was a simple
decision for us to split the workload between editors,
with Ian Campbell as Lead Editor and myself providing
regional support from Asia. Bringing in another editor
from the US made perfect sense and has provided a
relatively even load over the years.
DB:I actually published an article in the inaugural
issue, so I had heard about RPJ before it went live. I
came into the editorial position by guest editing for a
previous editor for a year. At the end of this time, the
editor resigned, so I was positioned to take over on a
permanent basis.
What do your respective roles entail?
IC:Initially, a lot of papers were coming from North
America and Europe, which myself and Ian Gibson
were quite able to handle between us. But a lot more
papers began to emerge from Asia (mainly), as well as
Africa and South America, so we decided to split them
into time zones and have regional editors. In addition
to staying on as Editor-in-Chief, I became Regional
Editor for Europe and Africa, Ian Gibson for Asia and
Australasia, and Dave Bourell is now Regional Editor
for the Americas. In my role, I’m still involved with
coordinating the review of papers from Europe and
Africa, but I am also working very closely with people
at Emerald to identify strategies we need to employ
to improve both the quality of RPJ and also its impact
upon the research community.
IG:I control the review process for papers submitted
to RPJ in the Asia-Pacific region. I ensure that the
correct reviewers are selected and make decisions
based on their review comments. I also promote the
journal throughout the region.
DB:I am responsible for editorial management of
manuscripts submitted to RPJ whose origin is North
or South America.
How does the EAB and others involved in RPJ
influence the direction of the journal?
IC: The Board was very important from the outset
because these are the people who were very
representative, especially of academic researchers
around the world, but also of people from key areas
such as the aerospace and automotive industries. From
the very start the Board was asked what the scope and
key direction of the journal should be. The Board still
plays that role if they see that there’s something that
we’re not covering. A lot of Board members are also
very prolific reviewers for the journal and encourage
submissions from their own team of researchers as
well as people they know from around the world whom
they meet at conferences and so on.
From an editor’s point of view, the thing that I really
want to acknowledge is not just the small number of
TALKING SHOP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DR IAN CAMPBELL AND REGIONAL EDITORS PROFESSORS DAVID
BOURELL AND IAN GIBSON OFFER INSIGHTS INTO THEIR LONG AND DISTINGUISHED
INVOLVEMENT IN RPJ SINCE THE JOURNAL’S BIRTH
6
7. people who are named in every RPJ issue such as the
editors, EAB and the team at Emerald, but also the
hundreds if not thousands of people who are behind
the scenes, both authors and those involved in the
review process. Reviewers are not receiving any
payment, putting in their own time, and the quality
of the reviews we get is extremely high, so I think it
needs to be acknowledged that academic journals like
RPJ rely heavily upon the academic community. They
want to keep abreast of the latest research and they
know that they have to have their papers reviewed,
so they are equally prepared to review other people’s
papers. I think in some ways they’re the unsung
heroes and we need to give them credit.
IG:Board members guide the journal’s development
as well as promoting the journal within their spheres
of influence. They are recognised specialists in
rapid prototyping/additive manufacturing and we
try to maintain a geographical balance in their
representation.
Have you submitted papers yourselves over the years?
IC:About two years ago, myself, Ian Gibson and Dave
Bourell were thinking that we were seeing much
more of 3D printing in the popular press and that
many more people were using these technologies
for manufacturing. Ian Gibson said that it’s about
time we took stock of where we are in the research
community, so we actually got together and wrote a
paper; a bit like an extended editorial really. Titled
‘Additive manufacturing: rapid prototyping comes
of age’, we provided quite an extensive overview
of where we thought the state of the art was at that
moment and also where we saw it going over the next
five, 10 or 20 years.
I think the reason we put the paper together was just
to clarify our own thoughts on this area. Since then,
we’ve seen quite a lot of researchers refer to the paper
as a nice summary of everything that has happened
up until that point in 2012 and also its future
directions, so it has actually turned out to be quite a
useful paper in itself.
DB:Modesty aside, the paper I co-authored as the first
description of direct metal additive manufacturing
in 1995 – ‘Direct selective laser sintering of metals’
– is the most highly cited paper in the history of
the journal and won an Emerald Impact of Research
Award in 2012.
7
8. Back in 1994, additive manufacturing was the sole
realm of large companies who used it to construct
physical prototypes and a small number of research
groups – the cost involved and expertise required
made the technology prohibitive for all but a select
few. Furthermore, as an immature technology,
materials, speed and accuracy of the process were all
significant barriers to progress from rapid prototyping
applications to commercial use.
Growth of additive manufacturing
However, this changed around 10 years ago
when metals were introduced into commercial
manufacturing machines: “Parts coming off these
machines were not just being used as prototypes,
but were going into actual products as functional
components for a range of industries, from consumer
goods right into aerospace,” adds Dr Ian Cambell, RPJ
Editor-in-Chief.
As the process morphed from a niche industry design
aid to a mainstream commercial application, so
too the name changed from ‘rapid prototyping’ to
‘additive manufacturing’, with the catch-all term ‘3D
printing’ covering both areas.
The commercial success of additive manufacturing
soon meant research increased and consequently
costs fell and speed and accuracy improved, until
around 2012 when awareness of the field exploded:
“The expiration of founding patents, the ‘discovery’
of the technology by the do-it-yourselfers and
hobbyists, and the statement by the US President
that the technology should be the paradigm for
advanced manufacturing, were all contributing
factors,” highlights Professor David Bourell,
Regional Editor of RPJ.
3D printing…
Beyond prototyping, for which the technology is still
a mainstay of manufacturers worldwide, additive
manufacturing is used to create finished and bespoke
parts in various industries, including aerospace,
biomedical, automotive (tools/dies, custom), tooling,
art, jewellery, archaeology and architecture. “I’ve
just come back from holiday where I had the privilege
of going to Barcelona to see the Sagrada Família
cathedral, and even there 3D printing is being used
to drive forward the architectural models that are
being used,” Campbell enthuses. As such, additive
manufacturing has now established itself as a key
tool in the development of most plastic and metal
manufactured products.
“With the technology improving over the years, this
has now opened up a range of new business ventures
through the application of direct digital manufacture
– the application of additive manufacturing to produce
final use parts,” RPJ Regional Editor Professor Ian
Gibson outlines. “3D printing is truly a ‘disruptive’
technology that has resulted in a number of new
applications that were previously unthought-of.”
… and beyond
With the public now capable of building their own 3D
printer if they so desire, and artists, entrepreneurs
and corporations fully integrating additive
manufacturing into their processes, the technology is
firmly established in society. So what does the future
hold for this exciting field?
4D printing has been mooted as the next big
advance. Originally proposed by researchers from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, the
idea is to build a 3D printed part that is not in its final
shape. Then, over the fourth dimension – time – the
shape will change or adapt to its environment, as
Campbell further elaborates: “The idea of printing a
part that’s not in its finished state is quite interesting,
as it allows for a shape that would be extremely
difficult to produce by post-processing”.
“Looking a bit further forward in terms of potential
applications, organ printing and spare parts
manufacture are exciting areas, where instead
of laying down bits of plastic or metal, machines
print out cells or combinations of cells and organic
chemicals, and even structure building materials.”
The idea is that eventually scientists will be able to
build replacement parts for people who have had
organ damage by printing the patients’ own cells
and then transplanting the product back into the
body. However, Bourell warns that such an advance
should not be expected soon: “Tissue engineering
and organ printing are some way off, but they have
A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE
RPJ HAS NOT ONLY WITNESSED BUT ALSO BEEN PART OF REMARKABLE
GROWTH IN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS.
HERE,WE EXAMINE THIS REMARKABLE PROGRESS AND ENVISAGE WHAT
THE FUTURE MIGHT HOLD FOR ACADEMIA,INDUSTRY AND THE PUBLIC IN
TERMS OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS
8
9. such enormous potential that they will remain at the
forefront of research”.
3D blueprint for sustainability
Although individual 3D printing applications
show great promise in improving many aspects of
society, the benefits of the technology could be
far wider reaching at the macro level. For the first
time, amateurs have the manufacturing technology
in their hands to design and build their own
products. This is likely to move people away from
fundamentally seeing themselves as consumers
and more as producers, with huge societal, cultural
and economic implications. Bourell likens this sea
change to the computing revolution witnessed in
the 1980s: “Once desktop computing was available
and adopted, users could directly perform their own
computing on dedicated computers – the impact has
been enormous,” he explains. “So could the same
thing be happening now with manufacturing, with
the enabler being additive manufacturing?”
Campbell sees other wide-reaching impacts for
society: “The aerospace community uses the term
‘buy-to-fly’ to describe how much material you
actually buy compared to how much of it actually
gets up into the aircraft. With 3D printing, buy-to-
fly ratios can be something like 70-80 per cent,
whereas if you’re cutting away material then it might
be that your buy-to-fly ratio is only 10 per cent.”
Hence, the additive manufacturing process itself
has the potential to save huge amounts of energy
and resources. Another benefit is that the geometric
freedom 3D printing offers allows designers to
reduce the weight of products significantly – known
as lightweighting. Optimising shape, structure and
number of components this way has been shown
to save as much as 10-20 per cent in weight, which
over the life of an aircraft, for example, equates to a
tremendous amount of fuel. “A third benefit is that in
some cases the materials that we’re using in additive
manufacturing are very recyclable, particularly for
metal parts,” Campbell adds. Taken together, these
advantages could see many companies turning to 3D
printing to improve their competitiveness – according
to the US Department of Energy, in applications
where additive manufacturing is competitive, 50 per
cent or more energy savings can be realised.
9
10. Who is the journal’s audience?
We’ve always seen the audience as being primarily
people who are active in research, trying to
drive these technologies forward. The majority
of these people are in academic communities
or institutions, but actually there’s quite a few
working in industry for large companies who are
using these technologies, or companies actually
developing the technology.
These readers don’t often submit to the journal
because they keep a lot of work secret, but they do
like to use the journal to keep abreast of what other
people are doing. Sometimes, if they see some
interesting research, they may well then contact the
author to ask if they can get involved in any way.
Does RPJ still serve the needs of the additive
manufacturing community after 20 years?
I think it does and that is not just my opinion – we
continue to have a large readership, we have more
papers being submitted to us than ever before and
our Impact Factor is on a largely upward trend, as it
has been over the last five or six years. What that
tells me is that not only are we providing an outlet for
publication, but also those publications are relevant
to the research community. In fact, whenever I’m
reading a paper – be it a conference article or a
submission to another journal – it’s now quite rare to
see no references to RPJ.
What are the advantages that RPJ has
over its competitors?
We’ve always been an interdisciplinary, multi-topic
journal, meaning we haven’t said that we’ll just
focus on materials or process development or just on
applications. Instead, we’ve offered people the ability
to publish whatever work they happen to be doing in
this area. The reason this is important is that there’s
a lot of interplay or inter-relationships between the
different areas. For example, process development
is dependent upon the materials that are available
and likewise a range of applications will depend very
heavily both upon the materials and the accuracy of
the machines that are being developed. Hence, people
working in this area can quite quickly get a grasp of
the total research community by looking in RPJ and
seeing what the different advances are, where their
research can make an impact and who else they need
to be talking to.
How do you see RPJ’s impact growing
in the years to come?
We are trying to improve the quality of the work that’s
being reported in RPJ. One way we are doing so is by
being even more rigorous in our review process. We
find the best reviewers and expand our network all
the time, because every time somebody becomes an
author in RPJ we then ask if they also want to be on our
review board.
The other way we are improving quality is by asking
authors to really examine the work they’ve submitted
and make very definite improvements to the paper.
It’s very, very rare now for a paper to be accepted
on its first review. Often it will go through two,
sometimes even three, iterations, each time trying to
improve the quality of that paper.
The reason we focus on quality is that we want to see
RPJ’s impact increase. The way impact is typically
measured is how many people are reading these
papers, and how many people are finding them
useful and citing them in their own research work.
I mentioned earlier that our Impact Factor has been
on a generally upward trend and we want to see
that increasing. Although we are in the top third
of mechanical engineering journals in terms of our
Impact Factor, we want to go even higher than that.
RPJ – SERVING THE NEEDS
OF ITS COMMUNITY
IN AN ENLIGHTENING INTERVIEW, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DR IAN
CAMPBELL EXPLAINS HOW THE JOURNAL CONTINUES TO
PERFORM THE ROLE OF CONDUIT FOR DIALOGUE BETWEEN
ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING STAKEHOLDERS
10
11. Professor Brent Stucker from the University of Louisville
in Kentucky, USA, has been a regular contributor to RPJ
for over a decade, writing both editorials and articles
for various issues of the journal. Furthermore, in 2009
he co-authored the book Additive Manufacturing
Technologies: Rapid Prototyping to Direct Digital
Manufacturing alongside RPJ Regional Editor Professor
Ian Gibson as well as Dr David W Rosen.
Having now co-founded a start-up company –
3DSIM – focused on commercialising technology
developed by him and his team at the University of
Louisville, Stucker is collaborating with academics
and industry experts to build software solutions
that will yield unprecedented insights into metal 3D
printing processes.
In the following pages, a feature about 3DSIM is
presented that will appear in the next Technology
issue of science dissemination publication
International Innovation. Published by Research
Media Ltd – a Bristol-based company acquired by
Emerald’s parent company Emerald Global Publishing
Group in 2013 – International Innovation offers a
different and unique forum for communication and
dissemination of research.
RPJ IMPACT: CASE STUDY
11
12. Could you begin with a brief introduction to
your respective backgrounds and how they
led you to the 3DSIM team?
BS: I have been working in additive
manufacturing (AM) research for over 20 years.
In 2009, I met Deepankar Pal, a PhD student
working on simulation research. Pal moved to
Utah to join my research group at Utah State
University and together we started focusing on
AM simulation.The next year, we moved the
team to the University of Louisville, in Kentucky.
Over five years, we built a team of researchers
and students, expanding and developing new
simulation techniques for AM. In 2013, we felt
like the technology had matured to such a level
that it could be used to launch a commercial
entity focused on creating AM simulation
software.
TS: In autumn 2013, Professor Stucker – a
family friend – contacted me to talk about the
types of people needed to create and run a
software company, as I had prior experience
and expertise in this area. Regardless to say,
those conversations went well and six months
later the company began operations with me as
President and CTO.
In summary, who comprises 3DSIM and
what expertise do they bring to the table?
BS: Our team is a combination of academic
and research thought leaders and software
industry experts, comprising algorithm
inventors (myself, Dr Deepankar Pal and Dr
Nachiket Patil), Tim Sublette and several other
outstanding individuals who we’ve hired to
join us. With a background in metallurgical and
materials engineering, and a PhD in Mechanical
Engineering, Dr Pal has expertise in the area of
3D finite element simulations of AM processes
and is an expert in multi-scale finite element
(FEM) analysis, including spatiotemporal
homogenisation, dimensional reduction and
nonlinear FEM. Dr Patil’s research background
lies in structural and industrial engineering, and
he also has extensive experience in simulations
of AM processes. As President and CTO of
our company, Mr Sublette has 20 years of
experience in the software industry. He has
previously been Head of Software Engineering
for multiple mid-sized companies and is on
the Computer Science Board of Advisors
for Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology,
his alma mater. Finally, I am an AM expert
with an academic background in mechanical
engineering. I have co-authored over 150
technical publications and presented more than
100 technical talks.
How important are external collaborations
to furthering the company’s goals?
BSTS: External collaborations are very
important to us, enabling us to forge links
with other experts in the field of AM and
informing our research objectives. For instance,
we have invested in strong partnerships with
machine manufacturers, material suppliers and
innovators in various academic and research
organisations.
Could you briefly describe the services
offered by 3DSIM, including products
currently under development?
BSTS: We have significant expertise in AM
and, as a result, we offer both consulting and
simulation services. For example, one of our
customers has a contract with us to run several
simulations on a given part, for a specific
machine and material combination of interest.
We recommend optimal parameters – such
as laser speed, power and hatch spacing – for
maximum build speed while still meeting the
design requirements. We also provide support
optimisation, which recommends the minimum
support structures required to counter residual
stress build-up. Other aspects of a build that
we can simulate include the amount of porosity
present in a part due to various factors such as
non-overlapping melt pools and keyhole porosity
due to vapourisation.
What are the team’s proudest achievements
to date?
TS: The company has been in operation since
1 March 2014 and so we are an extremely young
organisation. However, since that time we have
assembled a team of 10 people and we have
closed nearly US $500,000 in service contracts.
Most excitingly, we have completed work on the
initial C++ version of the process solver and it is
already thousands of times faster than anything
else that is currently available.
Looking ahead to the next decade, how
do you hope the research at 3DSIM will
develop and progress?
BS: It is our expectation that 3DSIM will
develop into a thriving software company that
provides simulation software in a cloud-based
environment. We also expect that anyone
who is performing research in the area of
AM – whether they are designing or building
parts or AM machines – will begin to use
3DSIM software products in order to optimise
their results. Ultimately, it is our hope that
the software we are developing will greatly
accelerate growth in the AM industry at large.
Professor Brent Stucker, CEO, and Tim Sublette, President and CTO, discuss their
startup company that is creating and refining additive manufacturing simulation software,
elucidating how their products and services are propelling industry innovation
A leading-edge
company
3DSIM
12
13. Streamlining simulation
Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is revolutionising the
design and manufacture of all kinds of products, from jewellery
to prosthetics, and electronics to jet engines. 3DSIM, a newly
launched software company, is developing cutting-edge
simulation tools that will enhance the efficiency of future additive
manufacturing machines and give unprecedented insight into the
design and performance of parts made using this technology
3DSIM
AS A FAST and flexible means of building
products directly from digital data, additive
manufacturing (AM) is able to create highly
advanced metal parts that far surpass the
capabilities of existing technology. With
early AM equipment first developed in the
1980s, the industry has seen remarkable
growth over the past decade. Indeed, in line
with burgeoning sales of AM machines since
2010, prices have fallen dramatically – and a
home-use market for 3D printers has even
been established. Excitingly, experts believe
that this industry is at the threshold of the
next wave of innovation in manufacturing.
In spite of this impressive and rapid
progression, the AM industry faces a number
of key challenges. For instance, the layer-
by-layer addition of materials to construct
the final geometrical product involves
the incorporation of complex internal
and external features, including channels
and supports. Creating these features is a
complex, dynamic process involving the
sequential application of material and
energy – and the tiniest differences in their
application can leadto unanticipated residual
stresses and dimensional warping. This, in
turn, can result in failure during the build or
the failure of component parts during the use
of the end product.
There is therefore a need for new software
tools in AM which are able to effectively
simulate material behaviour at the crystal
level: “Current AM technology innovations
are pursued through a costly and time-
consumingseriesoftrial-and-errorexercises,”
points out Professor Brent Stucker, an
academic with over 20 years of experience in
AM research. “Some technology exists today,
but it is so computationally intensive that
only very small areas of a part are simulated
– and the results are then extrapolated to
the entire build.” Although the mathematics
and physics used for predicting material
characteristics have been well-defined
in many finite element analysis texts,
calculating the results of a full bed simulation
has been estimated to take as much as
5.7 x 1018
years. Simulating small parts of
the build reduces the overall accuracy and
effectiveness of the data, creating an urgent
demand for innovation in the development
of full bed simulation processes.
FORGING INNOVATION
In response to the simulation problem in
the AM industry, as part of a collaborative
group of researchers from the University of
Louisville, Stucker, Dr Deepankar Pal and Dr
Nachiket Patil developed an innovative new
simulation infrastructure that has led to the
subsequent formation of a brand new startup
company, 3DSIM LLC. Since its inception in
2013, the team of academic and research
thought leaders at 3DSIM has focused on
developing a commercial implementation
of the simulation algorithms in C++. Their
ultimate aim is to optimise these algorithms
to ensure their efficient running in graphical
processing unit (GPU)-based high-
performance computing environments.
The simulation infrastructure developed
by Stucker and his colleagues capitalises
on the future potential of precision-
engineered AM products. The software is
being applied to the simulation of the metal
laser sintering process in AM via a moving
mesh strategy, which captures dynamic
thermal fields. It does this by passing a
Gaussian laser energy source across the
top of a powder bed. Furthermore, the
software also considers residual stress
and strain, as well as taking into account
various heat transfer phenomena including
A cutting-edge company
As an emerging software company
that was founded in 2013, 3DSIM
LLC is aiming to create the world’s
fastest framework for solving multi-
physics and multi-scale simulation
problems. Supported financially by
AM industry leaders, this forward-
thinking organisation draws on five
years of intensive RD activities
conducted by leading academics
in the AM field. It is pioneering
the development of simulation
products that will drive innovation
in the AM industry.
13
14. Since its inception in 2013, the team of academic and research
thought leaders at 3DSIM has focused on developing a commercial
implementation of the simulation algorithms in C++
3DSIM, LLC
OBJECTIVE
To build software solutions that provide
unprecedented insight into metal
3D printing processes – all at speeds
unattainable by current simulation tools.
KEY COLLABORATORS
Professor Brent Stucker, Inventor,
Cofounder and CEO
Tim Sublette, President and CTO
Dr Deepankar Pal, Inventor, Cofounder
and Chief Scientist
Dr Nachiket Patel, Inventor, Cofounder
and Senior Research Scientist
FUNDING
Organisations providing funding to
3DSIM to further develop and validate the
company’s algorithms:
America Makes, General Electric, United
Technologies Honeywell (2014-15) •
Science Technology Facilities Council,
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (2014-
15) • Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (2014-15) • Air Force Research
Laboratory Mound Laser Photonics
Center (2012-15)
Organisations that provided basic research
funding to the University of Louisville
for the development of AM simulation
algorithms:
Office of Naval Research (2010-17)
• National Institute of Standards
Technology (2013-15) • Air Force Research
Laboratory Mound Laser Photonics
Center (2012-15) • National Science
Foundation (2012-15) • Defense Advanced
Research Projects
Agency (2014-15)
CONTACT
Professor Brent Stucker and Tim
Sublette
T +1 317 661 1875
E tim.sublette@3DSIM.com
E brent.stucker@3DSIM.com
www.3dsim.com
3DSIM LLC is an emerging software
company focused on creating the world’s
fastest framework for solving multi-
physics/multi-scale simulation. Founded in
2013, 3DSIM is based on five years of RD
by leading academic researchers in additive
manufacturing and is financially backed by
additive manufacturing industry leaders.
Together, 3DSIM will create simulation
products that will propel the additive
manufacturing industry forward.
INTELLIGENCE
AM – how it works
Additive machines work by using
a range of advanced material
joining techniques to build parts
layer by layer. They have several
key advantages over traditional
approaches to manufacturing,
including cutting out the expense
oftools anddrastically reducingthe
amount of waste produced. Most
excitingly of all, this technology
transforms the possibilities
for product design, shattering
the constraints of traditional
manufacturing processes and
paving the way for the creation of
highly complex geometries with
optimised components.
14
the heat conduction, convection and phase
changes that occur during metal laser
sintering processes.
Specifically, Stucker and his team have
employed a multi-scale mesh that moves
dynamically with the energy source, enabling
fine-scale data to be collected in and around
the melt pool. A coarse mesh is then used
further awayfromthe poolwherethere is less
variability in the data.The data far away from
the melt pool are mathematicallyformulated
to be coupled with the implementation of
several other optimisations developed by
the researchers. This pioneering process
enables the 3DSIM team to simulate a full
powder bed in less time than it takes to
build one part: “Our novel mathematics and
algorithms enable simulation many orders
of magnitude faster than anything else that
is currently available,” Stucker asserts. “At
the same time, it provides better scientific
answers to AM phenomena that occur during
the building process.” It is the speed and
accuracy of this software that sets it apart
from other commercially available software
tools in the AM industry.
DRIVING DEVELOPMENT
Working closely with 3DSIM’s President
and CTO Tim Sublette, Stucker and the rest
of the research team have launched several
key goals for the company’s continued
development. Firstly, they are attempting
to drive RD in the core solvers. For
example, they are refining the ability
of the process solver to determine the
thermal history during the build process
of the product, as well as its capacity to
establish the accumulated residual stress
and resulting distortion. They are also
developing its ability to ascertain the
amount of porosity and surface roughness
of the respective parts of a product in
question. As for the material solver, the
researchers are aiming to fine-tune the
various mechanical properties of the
product, such as its stress and strain curves.
Moreover, they plan to further develop
their verification and validation techniques,
enabling them to ensure that they arrive
at the expected answers based on their
algorithms and the correct answers based
on experimental comparison.
Ultimately, achieving these ambitious and
forward-thinking research aims requires
intensive investment in personnel and
talent development. In this regard, 3DSIM
is focused on hiring promising individuals
and will invest in the workforce by providing
a strong company culture and compelling
work incentives. This progressive startup will
also be expanding its sales and marketing
arm in an effort to acquire more customers
and deliver excellent value.
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