For critical applications such as aerospace, naval, automotive and energy, performance continually drives the need to innovate. And whether it’s designing new components or sustaining legacy platforms, the engineering innovation “push” must be balanced against the “pull” of safe and reliable operation. This is where qualification standards and certification processes come into play. They help ensure new designs, material sources, and processing techniques produce consistently performing parts that meet minimum requirements.

The push/pull contrast is most evident in the “testing” phase of any certification process. The amount of physical testing involved in bringing a new product to market, qualifying a new manufacturing technique, or approving a new vendor can be immense. But it is done in order to mitigate the risk of the “new”. In particular – the world of additive manufacturing (AM) has been prone to extensive testing, because of the variability currently seen in the many manufacturing processes under the AM umbrella. The reality of all of this testing means long lead times and high development costs, with valuable resources taken up by going down blind alleys leading nowhere.

VEXTEC’s VPS-MICRO® software is a predictive tool based on Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME). Our analytical software simulates metal fatigue at the microstructural level, and accounts for the material and processing variabilities seen in any type of manufacturing – including AM. With VPS-MICRO, you create and run virtual Design of Experiments (DOE) to hone in on appropriate material conditions that give high confidence for passing physical tests. Without changing the parameters of the certification process, the software efficiently simulates what will happen when a metallic component is tested in fatigue. This allows you to direct the physical testing to only acquire the data you need and nothing more, saving valuable time and money in the process.

The U.S. Department of Defense is investing big in AM, and has recently enlisted VEXTEC’s help to provide VPS-MICRO for Air Force use in this initiative. The U.S. Navy has also recently contracted with VEXTEC to expand the capabilities of our Corrosion Cracking Maintenance Prediction Software (CCMPS). This software aids in the condition-based testing and maintenance of stress corrosion cracking onboard naval vessels, with the goal of extending their service life by as much as a decade.

Find out how VEXTEC’s commercial VPS-MICRO software can help in your paradigm – to be able to test smarter, certify faster, and build better products. Click below to schedule an introductory call with our team today!