Solvay Partners for Simulation of High-Performance Polymers

Solvay has partnered with e-Xstream Engineering to enable users to model and simulate the printing process of its products and filaments and predict the thermomechanical behavior of 3D-printed designs on e-Xstream’s Digimat-Additive Manufacturing (AM) platform.

Solvay has added 10 percent carbon fiber-filled KetaSpire polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and neat Radel polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) to e-Xstream Engineering’s latest release (2019.0) of its Digitmat-AM software. These products are said to complement the neat KetaSpire PEEK AM filament already available for simulation on the platform.

“Our growing range of AM filaments underscores Solvay’s determination to establish itself as an industry leader in this rapidly evolving market,” says Christophe Schramm, additive manufacturing business manager in Solvay’s Specialty Polymers global business unit. “Digimat-AM allows customers to simulate the printing process and successfully predict the thermomechanical behaviour of 3D-printed designs in order to ‘print right the first time’.”

The software is said to offer accurate, predictive modeling data for Solvay’s AM filaments over a wide range of critical characteristics, including detailed warpage and residual stress, to help designers and engineers optimize the process and minimize part deformation before printing. For highly demanding applications, Digimat is said to further enables design validation by predicting the printed part performance (stiffness, strength, etc.) as a function of the material and the printing process parameters.

“With the addition of Solvay’s new AM grades, we now have a wider portfolio of 3D printing grades in Digimat to provide cutting-edge new materials to push the design and application boundaries in this dynamic market,” says Roger Assaker, CEO of e-Xstream Engineering. “As a result of our partnership, we bridge the gap in simulation engineering between high-performance polymers and demanding printing processes such as fused filament fabrication.”