& Construction
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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
& Manufacturing
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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
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Success Story
Based in Lafayette, Colorado Fortius Metals is an industry leading producer of wire alloys for large format metal 3D printing and robotic welding. Fortius’ wire products offer advanced metallurgy and can weld materials typically considered non-weldable, such as 1xxx, 2xxx, 6xxx, and 7xxx series aluminum by solving hot tearing and hot cracking issues and refining the grain structure.
With any metal additive process, it can be challenging knowing where to begin. Leveraging CAM software allows Fortius to produce parts repeatably with established welding parameters that can be adopted to various applications. Repeatability ensures that Fortius Metals alloy achieves the desired metallurgical results for demanding applications.
The only way to establish the welding parameters is through in-house testing. Utilizing a powerful CAM solution enables rapid design iterations which provides a faster path to a final design. This empowers customers using Fortius wire alloys to have a distinct baseline advantage when implementing new alloys to their own processes.
Establish in house equipment for metal alloy wire product development and continued improvement. This would require establishing additive alloy best welding processes, toolpath planning techniques, and processing parameters of existing wire material benchmarks for enhanced alloy processing parameters and path planning.
Technical requirements:
Through a coordinated discovery process with Autodesk Solution Provider DSI (Design and Software) to better understand the challenges and project goals, Fortius worked with the DSI team to not only propose a technical solution but looked to DSI and their existing additive technical knowledge to provide a successful implementation plan.
It was recommended that Autodesk Fusion 360 with PowerMill would best fit the technical requirements from a software solution. Most importantly the recommendation included software product training, configuration including digital twin and post processors and most of all leveraging the technical knowledge and prior experience of the DSI team to help rapidly implement the proposed solutions.
Through rapid adoption and successful implementation, Fortius was able to achieve their goals by implementing in house Robotic WAAM processing and offline programming. Fortius is expanding their in-house capabilities with this solution realizing the benefits and to better suit their customer demands as well as to and will provide continuous product development and improvements to lead the industry.
In September of 2022, Fortius expanded to add two additional Robotic WAAM cells for additional R&D bandwidth and larger part capabilities. This investment has significantly contributed to the expansion of industry and partner platforms. Through this continuous investment, Fortius was able to engage with a prime aerospace company in a study to optimize a large structure produced using the WAAM/DED process.
Fortius President Jeff Lints mentioned that having already implemented a solution, he was able to present a fully characterized print at IMTS in Chicago to engage with potential customers.
Fortius working with DSI and Autodesk Fusion360 with PowerMILL, has implemented the desired solution. Fortius Metals, Inc. is positioned to offer a unique wire product to all industries. Fortius Metals offers customers the unique ability to fabricate next-generation designs with high-performance alloys, that can produce parts previously not possible even using the most advanced AM techniques. These complex engineering programs can be successfully pursued because of product and service efforts from Fortius such as process development, supplying raw materials, and quality control per common standards.
Project summary
Duration & delivery
Autodesk solutions
Services provided
Customer industry
Complex 6 Axis Machine Requires Sophisticated Post Development
AIS was using a mix of various CAM software and wanted to standardize on Autodesk software. One of the obstructions to doing this was the variety of Post Processors required to program existing machinery. Although most of the CNC machines posed minimal concern, the Makino’s Variable Geometry (VG) machine posed the greatest challenge. This particular machine had long been discontinued and there were not many sold, being such a specialized machine in that it was a Variable Geometry machine. Compounded with being a 6 Axis Mill added additional complexity. What made the Makino Variable Geometry (VG) machine so different is that programming these machines is much different than any other machine, including other Makino machines. What makes these machines so different is the hyper accuracy as well as being massively rigid.
Autodesk Named User Licensing Saves Time & Money
The challenge is the customer was realizing lost productivity due to a lack of understanding on how software was being used and through ongoing I.T related costs for ongoing license management and updating. Customer has multiple locations with various products and contract, all with various renewal dates. To make this matter more complex the customer had a variety of deployment mechanisms where some users were using networked "multi-user" licenses along with other less efficient licensing tools.
Robotic Additive Realized for National Shipbuilders
EWI (formerly known as Eddison Welding Institute) empowers industry leaders to overcome complex manufacturing challenges and seamlessly integrate new processes to bring products to market more quickly and efficiently. This project’s overall goal is to develop a standardized (DED) Directed Energy Deposition (AM) Additive Manufacturing process using a 7 Axis robotic arc on a large format 3 axis gantry rail system (10 Axis Total). The intention of the system is to build a wide range of structures and components. This project will develop the digital data workflow processes, establish workforce competencies, help break down process qualification barriers, demonstrate representative qualifications, and provide standardized equipment for robotic arc Directed Energy Deposition Additive Manufacturing.
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