AM specialist at Dassault describes production challenges, lure of materials & a CFD one-two punch

In a wide-ranging interview at at Dassault Systèmes' 3DExperience Forum North America in South Florida, Subham Sett, director of strategic initiatives for AM and materials at the French software giant, outlines its approach to AM, the biggest challenges his customers face in the production process, certification needs by the FDA and FAA, and "the infinite capacity you have to engineer a material to fit a purpose." He also outlines what Dassault Systèmes will gain from its planned purchase of Massachusetts-based Exa, for about $400 million: "If you look at the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) technology and what's around us, there are a lot of fluid applications…, and Exa, being the world leader for lattice Boltzmann techniques for CFD, brings in a key piece of technology, which adds onto another acquisition we made last year—a [division of the Spanish firm Next Limit that produced the XFlo CFD software]. Between them, we have some of the best technologies that will help us drive our CFD offers. As well as, it starts addressing a marketspace that quite honestly is still evolving with all the work that is happening in aerospace and automotive and oil and gas."