The software provides a complete set of features that make it quick and easy to use –yet powerful and flexible. Let's see them in detail:
- An extensive database contains reliable information about all additive manufacturing production cost components. Those pre-set items are included to let you evaluate market-proven data in minutes. Among them, you'll find:
- Parts. Of course, you can define components on your own. However, if you are in a hurry or still need to go through the whole design cycle, you can quickly perform calculations using our extensive set of exemplary parts.
- Materials. Each material has basic technical specifications (e.g., density as printed, cost). Additionally, each material has its own attributes that will help you define the expected output, such as its strength, flexibility, details resolution, surface look, and so forth.
- Equipment. All major technology provided by prime manufacturers are represented, but you will also find cutting-edge technologies provided by startups. By default, the software offers a wide range of industrial equipment for polymers, metals, and composites.
- Process parameters. It's well known that the process parameters play an essential role in the output of your production, significantly affecting quality and cost. Our parameter sets build on actual use cases and provide extensive control over the cost calculation.
- Post-processing. Often referred to as the "necessary evil" of 3D printing, post-processing can have a dominant role among all cost components -particularly when it comes to metal parts production. Besides the well-known hassle of support removal, the UltiMath AM algorithm considers many other options such as build plate removal (via band-sawing or EDM), stress relief cycles, heat treatment (e.g., annealing), and even advanced processing such as Hot Isostatic Pressing. Needless to say, surface improvement is also included for both plastic (e.g., chemical smoothing) and metal (e.g., electrochemical machining, tumbling, abrasive flow, and so forth).
- Operation settings. Finally, operation settings are considered in the calculation. These can vary significantly from country to country and depends on the machine's uptime or its total operational availability (depending on the turns of your facility). The hourly cost of your employees (e.g., engineers, technicians, operators) is also part of the operation settings and the FTE required to run each production stage. That will give you granular control over your final cost.
- The calculation is accurate and goes into each detail. The software provides an automated, intelligent report that summarizes the focal points of your result. Additionally, a set of charts lets you grasp the full spectrum of details at a glance. As icing on the cake, you can access the full results table and run further analysis on a spreadsheet or other personal productivity tools.
- The option to create your own datasets, including parts, materials, equipment process parameters, and operations settings. Those features are available according to your license type (see pricing page). The Full Bundle option includes all the features, making UltiMath AM a truly advanced software that will help you fine-tune your cost according to the expected framework of your production. An invaluable help to maximize the accuracy of your calculation, evaluate the technology in-depth, or find hidden gems among all the options offered by the whole set of AM possibilities.
- An extensive yet accessible Knowledge Base. Since the software is made by experts, for experts, we believe anyone will find a tangible value added in our knowledge base. Also, we welcome people that are approaching the technology for the first time. For them the content you'll find are truly valuable. As some Alpha Test professional told us, they worth the subscription license alone.
- Analyse the cost curve of each calculation. If you produce one part, or one thousand parts, your cost will vary accordingly. That universal law of manufacturing has peculiarities in the 3D printing realm. Our software calculates automatically your cost curve as a function of quantities.
- Compare results or compare each dataset. Comparing your results will give you immediate answer to very common question. Do you need a fast, expensive machine, or will you optimize your cost with a smaller equipment? The initial investment can be misleading, so this tool will become your best ally when it comes to understanding differences.
- Run a quick technology comparison against a given part. Don't have the time to set up your dataset and just want to understand the difference in cost between the most mature technologies? We do that for you. Just select the part the you want to assess, and the technologies you want to compare —the software will do the rest for you.
- Get an extensive list of recommendation about your print. Thanks to our Part Assessment Questionnaire, as well as the Tips and Hints we provide once your create your parts, you can literally save thousands of dollar in consulting. Sure, for large investment we still suggest to be followed by an experienced professional, but you'll find our suggestion utterly useful.
- Analytics that help you reach your target cost for a given component. Do you have a target cost for your parts and AM looks to expensive to you? While running the calculation, our algorithm perfor a cross-check on all cost component, pointing out the possible strategies to reduce its cost and match your target. Your boss will be surprised, and you'll become a superstar. Give it a try!
- Access a fast-lane for contacting OEM and Service Bureau. This feature will be implemented on a daily basis. We are already contacting all major players on the market to allow our customer to interact quickly and get sample parts in a matter of days instead of weeks or months.
- Finally, remember that this is UltiMatham v.1 In the coming months will put a big deal of effort to further developing the software. Many more features will come, and we will work hard to improve the overall user experience. Also, we are keen to implement any feature you may find useful to include, so please do not hesitate to submit any feature-request you wish to see implemented (you'll find the link in your personal area).