Design SuperiorAlloys Fast WithPhysics-Driven Simulation
A design assistant that co-optimizes every requirement at once, finding the right chemistry, temper and forming route together.
Create thousands of digital twins, simulate strength, conductivity, corrosion and what a thousand hours at temperature does to all three, then run only the most promising ones.
Trial and error, balancing many conflicting requirements
Raise the yield strength and the conductivity goes down with it. Anneal it back and the part loses the spring the joint depends on. Plate it to hold contact resistance and the plating creeps at temperature. Fix all three and the tool life halves and the part misses its cost. Then whatever works still has to run on the press you own, clear the restricted substance list, and come from a grade the mill will still roll next year.
The project
A new R&D project is defined.
The targets
Target properties are defined, and they conflict. Fixing one ruins another.
The search
Millions of candidate specifications, because every chemistry can be rolled, formed and aged in many ways. With mill trials and press time, only a few are ever run.
The risk
A specification that works is only the start. These three are targets of their own, optimised for last when the part is hardest to change. Any one can end the program.
Backbond co-optimizes for all the targets simultaneously
The same four steps, answered. Backbond hands the team a short list of specifications that already hit every target and already survive the press, the qualification and the supply chain.
- Conductivity
- Define a Number
- Yield strength
- Define a Number
- Stress relaxation
- Define a Number
- Formability
- Define a Number
- Cycle time
- Define a Number
Define
The product, the targets it must hit, and the parameters to change: alloy family, temper and anneal, strip gauge, plating stack.
Simulate
Backbond simulates all possible combinations and evaluates every one, chemistry and process together.
Rank
The candidate specifications are ranked by promise and confidence, and those are not the same thing.
Test
The team proceeds to the coupon and the pilot run with the most promising specifications. By default, these satisfy all targets and constraints.
Simulation removes the regrade loops, and those are where the months go. Qualification still runs on the real press, and no software shortens it.
How Backbond simulates a design candidate
Four levels of physics decide what a metal actually does, and Backbond reasons about how all four interplay to set every spec.
A few example use cases
Every one is the same shape: a handful of targets that fight each other, and one specification that has to hit them all.
A contact must carry more current and still take the forming. Find the alloy, temper and anneal that hold both, while keeping stress relaxation, plating adhesion and cost.
A connector must hold its force after a thousand hours at 150 °C. Find the alloy, cold work and plating stack that resist the relaxation, while keeping conductivity, formability and cost.
A machined part must come out of the furnace inside 20 µm. Find the grade, fixture and quench route that hold the geometry, while keeping hardness, fatigue life and cycle time.
A shaft must reach ten million cycles at a fillet nobody can make larger. Find the alloy, surface treatment and residual stress that hold the life, while keeping hardness, cost and machinability.
A grade must lose its lead and still run at the same feed. Find the substitute chemistry, inclusion control and tooling that hold the cycle time, while keeping strength, finish and tool life.
An aluminium part must bolt to steel without corroding at the joint. Find the alloy, coating and isolation that stop it, while keeping strength, weight and assembly time.
A surface must drop its hexavalent chrome and still pass salt spray. Find the chemistry, pretreatment and cure that hold the corrosion life, while keeping appearance, adhesion and cost.
A steel component must become aluminium and keep its fatigue life. Find the alloy, section and heat treatment that carry the load, while keeping stiffness, forming route and cost.
A part must carry more secondary metal and still hit spec. Find the chemistry, refining and tolerance on tramp elements that hold the properties, while keeping consistency, appearance and cost.
A grade must be replaced when nickel or cobalt doubles. Find the alternative chemistry and process window that hold every validated property, without reopening qualification.
The future of the metals R&D organization
How Optagon Labs imagines the metals company of the future, drawn from work with hundreds of R&D teams: one brain coordinating specialised agents that work in parallel, running development end to end across the portfolio.
Coordinating work across every function