Additive manufacturing for designers and engineers

An end-to-end additive engineering and manufacturing solution offers significant benefits across a wide range of industries:

• The aerospace and automotive sectors can leverage the solution to rapidly produce complex, lightweight components that improve performance and efficiency.
• The industrial machinery industry can use additive techniques to create customized spare parts on-demand, reducing inventory and lead times.
• The medical device industry can take advantage of 3D printing to manufacture personalized prosthetics, implants and surgical guides tailored to individual patient anatomy.

Our end-to-end additive engineering and manufacturing solution provides transformative opportunities for companies seeking to enhance their agility, innovation and competitive edge.

When it comes to additive manufacturing, software integration is key due to multiple factors:

• Seventy percent of top-performing companies look to their software tools for guidance when developing best practices around additive manufacturing.
• Integrated software reduces time-to-print by removing inefficiencies.
• Software integration enables designers and manufacturers to handle change as designs evolve through multiple iterations.
• Incorporated validation routines save time by leveraging domain knowledge to identify issues with parts long before they are sent to the shop floor.

When choosing an additive manufacturing software solution, look for an integrated solution that will allow you to reimagine products, retool manufacturing and rethink business models. With our additive engineering and manufacturing integrated solution, your teams can level up your additive manufacturing operations with the following capabilities:

• Integrated: Leverage the most comprehensive digital twin to manage and trace your entire operational workflow while minimizing errors.
• Open and interoperable: With the integration of Siemens AM Network, an order-to-print system, and Opcenter X, an MES system, you can create printable designs and execute on the print process. The integration also allows you to properly manage the entire manufacturing operation to ensure traceability and product performance in the field.
• Adaptable and personalized: Easily connect Siemens AM Network with customization tools and order personalized items, then streamline the order management and production planning processes. Furthermore, NX, which is part of our integrated additive engineering and manufacturing solution, offers product design engineering and manufacturing capabilities. NX is highly customizable, allowing you automate the creation of custom support structures and unique part geometry.

Discover how toolcraft AG, an early entrant in the 3D printing sphere, leveraged NX to decrease complexity and improve traceability in their processes.

Integrating additive manufacturing into existing workflows, upskilling the workforce and ensuring material, quality and scalability requirements pose significant challenges for manufacturers. Regulatory compliance in regulated industries adds further complexity.

Overcoming these challenges requires a comprehensive, end-to-end additive manufacturing solution that tightly integrates design, simulation, production and quality control capabilities. Siemens offers a best-in-class suite of tools to seamlessly address these critical implementation challenges.

From design to post-print validation, additive manufacturing is changing the way products are designed and manufactured. Additive engineering and manufacturing solutions allow for greater design flexibility and easier customization. With the most comprehensive digital twin and a digital thread approach, these solutions empower your teams to design parts with complex, next-generation geometries, easily collaborate with all stakeholders, avoid expensive prototyping and discover the best designs. All of these capabilities streamline the design process and ensure you are able to confidently meet customer requirements and delivery timelines.