Manufacturing-Analysis_Altair-Inspire™-Cast

Altair Inspire Cast

Simulation of filling and solidification to predict porosity, hot spots, and optimise gating/risers before tooling.

Altair Inspire Extrude simulation of a metal extrusion process, analysing material flow, die performance, and defect prediction.

Altair Inspire Extrude

Metal/polymer extrusion with the HyperXtrude solver to detect defects early, balance temperature/pressure, and improve profile quality.

Altair Inspire Form sheet metal forming simulation, analysing material flow, thinning, and potential defects in the stamping process.

Altair Inspire Form

Sheet metal forming feasibility, thinning, wrinkling, and springback simulation to reduce scrap and iterations.

Manufacturing-Analysis_Altair-Inspire™-Mold

Altair Inspire Mold

Injection molding across filling, packing, cooling, and warpage with a fast five-step workflow for DfM.

A visualisation of a dump truck releasing granular materials, demonstrating Altair EDEM DEM’s ability to simulate bulk material behavior and interactions with heavy machinery.

Bulk and powder material simulation (DEM) to study flow, dosing, spreading, and equipment interaction - crucial for powder-bed AM.

Trusted By More Than 1.3 Million Users

Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing combines five process-specific simulators – Altair Inspire Cast, Altair Inspire Extrude, Altair Inspire Form, Altair Inspire Mold, and Altair EDEM – to validate manufacturability, control quality, and streamline production from powders and dosing to forming, molding, casting, and extrusion. Predict defects (porosity, warpage, thinning, short shots, die hot spots), tune parameters (gates, runners, blank size, cooling lines, die temperature), and de-risk scale-up with powder-bed insights and part-to-process workflows.

Prevent
Defects Early

Optimise
Process Window

Link Powder
to Production

Easy for Designers
and Engineers

Trusted By More Than 1.3 Million Users

Additive Manufacturing

Manufacturing-Analysis_Altair-Inspire™-Cast

Altair Inspire Cast

Simulation of filling and solidification to predict porosity, hot spots, and optimise gating/risers before tooling.

Altair Inspire Extrude simulation of a metal extrusion process, analysing material flow, die performance, and defect prediction.

Altair Inspire Extrude

Metal/polymer extrusion with the HyperXtrude solver to detect defects early, balance temperature/pressure, and improve profile quality.

Altair Inspire Form sheet metal forming simulation, analysing material flow, thinning, and potential defects in the stamping process.

Altair Inspire Form

Sheet metal forming feasibility, thinning, wrinkling, and springback simulation to reduce scrap and iterations.

Manufacturing-Analysis_Altair-Inspire™-Mold

Altair Inspire Mold

Injection molding across filling, packing, cooling, and warpage with a fast five-step workflow for DfM.

A visualisation of a dump truck releasing granular materials, demonstrating Altair EDEM DEM’s ability to simulate bulk material behavior and interactions with heavy machinery.

Bulk and powder material simulation (DEM) to study flow, dosing, spreading, and equipment interaction - crucial for powder-bed AM.

Additive Manufacturing with Altair combines five process-specific simulators – Altair Inspire Cast, Altair Inspire Extrude, Altair Inspire Form, Altair Inspire Mold, and Altair EDEM – to validate manufacturability, control quality, and streamline production from powders and dosing to forming, molding, casting, and extrusion. Predict defects (porosity, warpage, thinning, short shots, die hot spots), tune parameters (gates, runners, blank size, cooling lines, die temperature), and de-risk scale-up with powder-bed insights and part-to-process workflows.

Prevent
Defects Early

Optimise
Process Window

Link Powder
to Production

Easy for Designers
and Engineers

Where Additive Manufacturing excels

Simutron - Altair Powder-Bed Layer Quality

Powder-Bed Layer Quality

Simulate dosing and raking/spreading; assess voidage, particle orientation, contact count to improve layer uniformity.

Simutron - Altair Injecting Molding

Injection-Molded AM Parts

Validate filling/packing/cooling/warpage and remove short shots, weld lines, air traps before steel.

Simutron - Altair Lightwieght Design

Formability for Lightweight Designs

Check feasibility, thinning, wrinkling, springback; optimise blank and process stages.

Simutron - Altair Profiles and dies

Extruded Profiles and Dies

Predict temperature, pressure, die stress; stabilise throughput and surface finish.

Simutron - Altair Low-Porosity Casting

Low-Porosity Castings

Optimise gating/risers and detect hot spots/porosity to reduce scrap.

Additive Manufacturing technical specifications
Processes covered:	Powder handling & layer spreading (DEM); Injection molding; Sheet metal forming; Metal/polymer extrusion; Metal casting.
Physics & solvers:	DEM (Altair EDEM); HyperXtrude FEA (Extrude); forming feasibility & springback (Form); molding fill/pack/cool/warpage (Mold); casting fill/solidification (Cast).
Typical outputs:	Voidage/orientation/contacts (powder); porosity/hot spots (casting); temperature/pressure/die stress (extrusion); thinning/wrinkling/springback (forming); weld lines/warpage/short shots (molding).
CAD/data:	Import common CAD (e.g., STEP/IGES/STL); export field data for downstream CAE where applicable.
Performance:	Desktop to HPC/GPU (EDEM supports GPU for large powder studies).

From Powder to Part - Pick the Right Tool(s) for Each Step

Altair brings powder physics and production processes together so teams can predict quality from feedstock to finished part.

Altair EDEM quantifies powder flow and layer uniformity; Altair Inspire Mold removes warpage and short shots; Altair Inspire Form resolves thinning and springback; Altair Inspire Extrude stabilises temperature/pressure and die stresses; and Altair Inspire Cast reduces porosity and hot spots.

Expect fewer trials, higher first-time-right rates, and a faster ramp from development to production.

From Powder to Part - Pick the Right Tool(s) for Each Step

Altair brings powder physics and production processes together so teams can predict quality from feedstock to finished part.

Altair EDEM quantifies powder flow and layer uniformity; Altair Inspire Mold removes warpage and short shots; Altair Inspire Form resolves thinning and springback; Altair Inspire Extrude stabilises temperature/pressure and die stresses; and Altair Inspire Cast reduces porosity and hot spots.

Expect fewer trials, higher first-time-right rates, and a faster ramp from development to production.

Additive Manufacturing Capabilities

Powder Layer Quality

Altair EDEM simulates powder dosing and recoating so you can see how settings affect each layer’s uniformity before you print. You monitor practical metrics like voidage and particle contacts, then quickly test rake or roller speed and gap to reduce trial-and-error on the machine.

Injection-Molded Part Quality

Inspire Mold predicts filling, packing, cooling and warpage to eliminate short shots, weld lines and air traps before steel is cut, while Inspire Cast simulates filling and solidification to expose hot spots and porosity early. Together they let you tune gates, runners, cooling, risers and vents with evidence, not guesswork.

Sheet Forming Feasibility

Inspire Form checks whether your sheet design will form and hold shape by highlighting thinning, wrinkling and springback. You can iterate blank size, tooling stages and materials to reach thickness and tolerance targets with fewer try-outs.

Extrusion Throughput

Inspire Extrude balances die temperature and pressure to protect surface finish and dimensional control while revealing die stresses that drive tool wear. You then adjust bearing lengths, cooling and pull speed to run faster without sacrificing quality.

Additive Manufacturing Tools Comparison: Choose the Right Altair Product

Problem / Capability	Altair Inspire Cast	Altair Inspire Extrude	Altair Inspire Form	Altair Inspire Mold	Altair EDEM
Core process	Metal casting (fill & solidify)	Metal/Polymer extrusion (HyperXtrude)	Sheet forming (feasibility→springback)	Injection molding (fill/pack/cool/warpage)	Powder/bulk flow & layer spreading (DEM)
Typical defects addressed	Porosity, hot spots	Die hot spots, surface defects	Thinning, wrinkling, springback	Short shots, weld lines, warpage	Layer non-uniformity, dosing errors, blockages
Key outputs	Fill pattern, solidification, porosity maps	Temperature/pressure fields, die stress, profile quality	Thinning maps, feasibility, springback	Fill/pack/cool/warpage fields	Voidage, particle orientation, contact count, velocity
Tuning levers	Gating/risers, vents, parting	Die geometry, bearing length, speed, cooling	Blank size/shape, draw beads, stages	Gates, runners, cooling lines, material	Rake/roller speed, gap/height, material props, geometry
Best fit	Foundries & cast parts	Aluminium/polymer profiles	Auto/appliance sheet parts	Plastic parts & mold shops	Powder-bed AM & bulk solids handling

Additive Manufacturing Implementation in 3 Steps

1

Step 1: Identify Your Process

Pick the area to improve (powder layers, molding, forming, extrusion, or casting).

2

Step 2: Match the Right Altair Tool(s)

Select EDEM (powder), Inspire Mold (injection molding), Inspire Form (sheet forming), Inspire Extrude (extrusion), or Inspire Cast (casting) - one or a combination.

3

Step 3: Try It, Then Decide

Run a quick evaluation on your part(s), review the results, and proceed to Request a Demo or Get Pricing.

How do I choose the right tool(s)?

Map your process and primary defect risks to the matching simulator.

For powder-bed layers, Altair EDEM models dosing and recoating/raking and reports practical metrics like voidage and particle contacts to judge layer uniformity before you print.

For polymer parts, Inspire Mold predicts filling, packing, cooling, and warpage to prevent short shots and weld lines. For stamped parts, Inspire Form checks feasibility, thinning, wrinkling, and springback.

For profiles, Inspire Extrude (HyperXtrude) analyses temperature/pressure fields and die stress to protect finish and tool life.

For castings, Inspire Cast simulates filling and solidification to expose hot spots and porosity.

Use one tool – or combine several – based on your workflow.

Will this fit our CAD/engineering workflow?

Yes. The Inspire applications run in a CAD-like environment and import common formats (e.g., STEP/IGES/STL), so designers and process engineers can work earlier without changing their core stack.

EDEM also imports CAD geometry for equipment and fixtures, then provides post-processing to export quantitative fields (voidage, contact count, velocity, etc.) for reports or downstream CAE/QA – keeping Additive Manufacturing decisions data-driven.

Will this fit our CAD/engineering workflow?

Yes. The Inspire applications run in a CAD-like environment and import common formats (e.g., STEP/IGES/STL), so designers and process engineers can work earlier without changing their core stack.

EDEM also imports CAD geometry for equipment and fixtures, then provides post-processing to export quantitative fields (voidage, contact count, velocity, etc.) for reports or downstream CAE/QA – keeping Additive Manufacturing decisions data-driven.

What early outcomes can we expect?

Teams typically target one bottleneck per process and see quick wins: better powder layer uniformity by tuning recoater speed/gap or hardware (EDEM); fewer molding defects before steel is cut (Inspire Mold); reduced thinning and springback try-outs (Inspire Form); stable die temperature/pressure and lower die stress for improved profile quality (Inspire Extrude); and reduced porosity/hot spots via evidence-based gating and risers (Inspire Cast).

Choose the Right Altair Tools for Your Parts

Get a tailored walkthrough of EDEM, Inspire Mold, Inspire Form, Inspire Extrude, and Inspire Cast – focused on your process and quality goals.

Choose the Right Altair Tools for Your Parts

Get a tailored walkthrough of EDEM, Inspire Mold, Inspire Form, Inspire Extrude, and Inspire Cast – focused on your process and quality goals.