Case Study: Bosch achieves 70% lighter fixture tooling with Hexagon's additive manufacturing simulation

Overcome additive manufacturing issues by process simulation

Bosch India, a subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH, sought to overcome challenges in additive manufacturing, including part distortion and residual stress, to establish a "right first time" manufacturing process for a fixture tool. Their goal was to replace a traditionally cast part with a lighter, additively manufactured version. To achieve this, they worked with vendor Hexagon and utilized their Simufact Additive process simulation software.

Hexagon's solution involved using Simufact Additive to virtually simulate and optimize the build process. This allowed engineers to predict and counteract manufacturing issues, perform topology optimization, and apply pre-compensation methods. As a result, Bosch successfully integrated two parts into one, achieved a 70% reduction in weight, and reduced part distortion by 70% from 3.401 mm to 0.067 mm, ensuring the part was manufactured correctly the first time and realizing significant material and cost savings.

Bosch

Radhakrishnaiah Bathina

Technical Specialist