Velo3D has announced two new partnerships at RAPID + TCT 2023 in Chicago. It has partnered with PWR Advanced Cooling Technology to qualify Aheadd CP1, an aluminium alloy developed by Constellium, for use in the company’s Sapphire range of 3D printers. Through its Technical Partner Program, Velo3D has also partnered with London-based PhysicsX to provide engineers with artificial intelligence (AI) simulation tooling.

In the partnership with PWR, the CP1 aluminium alloy will be used to manufacture lightweight heat exchangers for Formula 1, along with various other components for the company’s high-performance customers. In addition to the standard 50-micron layer thickness that is used by Velo3D’s printers, CP1 is also being qualified to print in 100-micron layers, which Velo3D says provides a balance between finished part performance and system throughput.

Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body over Formula 1 and other global motorsports, recently approved the Aheadd CP1 alloy for use in Formula 1 cars beginning in the 2024 season. Velo3D said that the effort was largely driven by PWR, as the company already works with multiple professional motorsports teams to provide finished, tested, ready-to-use heat exchangers.

“Our team is committed to listening to customers and enhancing our technology to meet their needs, so when PWR came to us with a challenge of qualifying a new alloy with a first-of-its-kind parameter set, we were thrilled to partner with them on the project,” said Dr. Zachary Detweiler, Velo3D Vice President of Technology. “Aheadd CP1 is the first alloy qualified in our Augsburg, Germany European Technology Center.

“Our American and European teams are both adept at creating scalable solutions for metal AM materials and we encourage companies who need customised material development for their applications to contact us about their specific requirements.”

PWR has provided customers in F1, NASCAR, V8 Supercars, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, and other motorsport categories with high-performance aluminium radiators, intercoolers, oil coolers, and other finished parts. The company also serves names in the energy, defence, and aerospace industries.

PWR is AS9100D and ISO 14001 certified, ITAR compliant, and has secured Nadcap accreditations for its chemical processing and heat-treating services.

“Aheadd CP1 is a fantastic addition to our additive manufacturing services and Velo3D’s unparalleled print capabilities coupled with PWR’s brazed fin technology creates a unique performance differentiator for our customers,” said Mark Booker, PWR Technical Project Manager. “Our goal is to give our racing customers an unfair advantage on the track and we look forward to seeing these teams win using new parts manufactured by PWR.”

Velo3D’s partnership with Physicsx gives its customers access to PhysicsX’s artificial intelligence enabled physics simulation workflows to hyper-accelerate simulation loops, improve simulation fidelity, and algorithmically explore complex design spaces to unlock new performance levels according to Velo3D.

“We started working with PhysicsX when we were building the Sapphire XC printer because we needed to optimise the flow of gas in the printer build chamber to eliminate soot build-up around the laser windows of the system,” said Benny Buller, Velo3D Founder and CEO. “We quickly realised that PhysicsX’s capabilities could be a big boon to many of our customers who are pushing design performance limits. After working closely with them over the past two years, we’ve formalised our partnership to expose customers to the engineering synergy that exists by combining both companies’ technologies.”

According to PhysicsX, simulation for additive manufacturing, or SFAM, is a key component of its processes that makes previously unobtainable part and system performance achievable and manufacturable. By using multi-physics simulation with ultra-fast deep learning models, PhysicsX says it optimises designs to maximise performance.

PhysicsX says it combines traditional computer-aided engineering with machine learning capabilities to replicate the physics of various real-world environments. According to the company, its AI-powered technology can increase the number of design cycles that are possible over a specific timeframe and better fill in the gaps of numerical simulation with real-world data.

PhysicsX says that this enables engineers to extensively search a complex design space without imposing simplified design assumptions, and to have the confidence that those designs are reliably manufacturable at high quality.

“PhysicsX supports customers in some of the most important industries of our time, including aerospace, automotive, sustainability and renewables,” said Robin Tuluie, PhysicsX Founder and Co-CEO. “Our technology can be deployed to evaluate performance in a variety of categories, such as system performance, efficiency, weight, noise, and other criteria. Through PhysicsX, engineers have improved reduced emissions from aircraft and road vehicles, won world championships in MotoGP, and increased the performance of wind and hydro turbines.

“We’re excited about this partnership and that by working with both PhysicsX and Velo3D, customers will be able to quickly realise unparalleled performance gains for their products without compromising on reliability or additive build quality.”