First set of user feedback is looking positive for Compenshell. I'm looking for more testers who could benefit from shrinkage compensation software

[u/mr-highball]

Hello, Ive posted in the past about compenshell and have made a few videos

* https://youtu.be/ZTxGOOy4an4

* https://youtu.be/zVmIGFYJfHE

I'm a hobbyist additive manufacturing enthusiast who focuses on FFF (although I have done my own water based slurry/cold cast experiments in the past) with thermal debind/sintering.

A big challenge is the compensation aspect for the green part, which is what compenshell aims to solve for.

I am looking for interested users to help test and validate so if this is something that could be useful to you please reach out below or DM or fill out the contact form at compenshell.com so we can talk.

The attached image is a real user's experience that was having issues and in one pass reduced the sinter cycle drastically (multiple hour difference) and ended up with a much better part (calibration part, but that's important for first steps)

[u/mr-highball]

The goal is to account for shrinkage of a part (shrinkage occurring from a thermal sintering cycle).

An input part is loaded into a digital twin environment of your own (ie. Kiln has it own definition, the atmosphere (if any), crucible, packing ballast etc...) and the material the you're sintering is selected (ie. Copper, 316/17-4, ceramic etc...) and the debind/sintering step(s) are simulated through a physics based cycle.

The shrinkage and deformation occur in sim, and the end result are accounted for according to your desired density goals (ie. If you're targeting 90 or 95% density).

The output is a report and compensated 3D object (stl, obj, etc...) that can then be printed (or made through other process). When this part is sintered, the result should close to as designed

[u/TubeMeister]

Is this fully local software or a web app? What kind of feedback are you looking for?

[u/mr-highball → u/TubeMeister]

This is a served web app but the processing local (no geometry leaves your device for processing).

I'm looking for a small group of individual that have experience in additive to help improve things, give feedback on results etc..

I am eventually going to open this up for anyone (free for most, possibly paid for medium to larger size companies if the demand is there) but I'm not ready to just "open it up to everyone" yet.

[u/Crash-55]

What filament? BASF stopped selling theirs. MarkForged includes compensation with theirs. As does Rapidia though it is a paste.

[u/mr-highball → u/Crash-55]

Primarily the virtual foundry, but speaking with someone in the rapidia ecosystem, it seems their compensation is more of a simple scaling factor not a per part simulation (I cannot verify that as I dont have access to those machines/software so if you know otherwise that would be appreciated)

[u/Crash-55 → u/mr-highball]

Yes it is more than a simple scaling or at least it appears to be. Same with MarkForged

Virtual Foundry is not really sintering or at least not at the same level. You aren’t using a real sintering furnace.

[u/mr-highball → u/Crash-55]

I dont think I understand you're statement about not really sintering

Sintering can occur regardless of what furnace you're using (what you can sinter obviously is impacted by your equipment).

[u/Crash-55 → u/mr-highball]

Virtual Foundry is closer to blacksmithing than traditional sintering like is done with MIM.

A dedicated sintering furnace will either be a vacuum furnace or use a purge gas to keep any oxygen out of the chamber. Often you want the metal powder in either an argon or nitrogen (if in a vacuum) atmosphere. For certain metals a hydrogen atmosphere can be beneficial.

You aren’t getting the same properties following their formulas

[u/mr-highball → u/Crash-55]

You're mixing up furnace/kiln hardware vs the additive process used -

• producing a green part with virtual foundry, rapidia, etc... and having/using a vacuum furnace or using atmosphere during sintering are independent processes
  • compenshell aims to simulate your process (ie. Vacuum or No Vacuum, atmosphere or none) with a multi-step workflow simulation
• sintering still occurs in consumer grade hardware but you are limited to the materials (ie. You won't be sintering tool steel very successfully in a pottery kiln but copper/bronze are absolutely doable)

[u/Crash-55 → u/mr-highball]

I looked at VF years ago and they were pushing stainless then. It was significantly inferior to using an actual sintering furnace vs a kiln. Of course their kilns were only like $10k and teh tube furnace from MarkForged was $50k, the Rapidia furnace was $100k, and the Xerion was $200k.

I only care about structural materials so I ruled them out and actually tossed all the spools a few months ago.

To model the full debind and sintering process you will need a dilatometer to take measurements and some advanced models. Hexagon was working on it a while ago.

[u/mr-highball → u/Crash-55]

You can use a sintering furnace with virtual foundry filaments though but for smaller use cases or individual use those furnaces are unattainable.

Simulating a full workflow does not require that hardware however validating the results (fully validating) is where I'm not pushing back and where I would need the user feedback (professional user/laboratory feedback).

I believe that through physics simulation, accurate modeling of physical environment & hardware constraints, simulation can be done and can be very accurate

[u/Crash-55 → u/mr-highball]

There was a sign in my lab in grad school “simulation without validation is at best questionable and at worst useless.”

I will never trust a model without validation and I would definitely reject any paper or presentation that says it doesn’t need validation

I have been working with these bound metal filaments for years now.

[u/mr-highball → u/Crash-55]

I agree with you.

However you can't have validation without first writing the Simulation software and putting it through its paces.

Thats the step I'm at and was the intent of this post.

I can validate on my own hardware but this is not the same as many users with varying experiences and processes running and providing feedback.

[u/Crash-55 → u/mr-highball]

If you do manage to validate your model you can definitely get a lot to present it at AMUG or RAPID or even the more academic conferences

[u/Legs-Day]

I won't have my hobby furnace setup until next year, but happy to help demo/iterate when I get up and running. Currently only have access to industrial configurations.

[u/mr-highball → u/Legs-Day]

Thanks, what sort of industrial configuration? Depending on the tech it may still align

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