Design SuperiorAlloys Fast WithPhysics-Driven Simulation
Describe the part you want. Backbond finds the chemistry, temper and forming route that hit every requirement at once: strength, conductivity, corrosion, cost, and more…
Trial and error, balancing many conflicting requirements
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
- 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.
01Strength against conductivity
A busbar must carry 40% more current in the same cross-section and still take the forming. Find the alloy, precipitate structure and temper that break the trade-off, while keeping stress relaxation, formability and cost.
02Motor laminations
A traction motor must turn faster without its core losses following it up. Find the electrical steel chemistry, gauge and anneal that cut the loss at frequency, while keeping yield strength at rotor speed, punchability and cost.
03Castings that skip heat treatment
A structural casting must come out of the die ready to use, with no solution treatment and no straightening. Find the alloy, iron tolerance and casting window that hold the elongation, while keeping castability, joining and scrap tolerance.
04Alloys that survive printing
A part qualified as a casting has to be printed instead, on machines the plant has already bought. Find the chemistry, powder specification and solidification window that hold the microstructure, while keeping creep life, oxidation resistance and build yield.
05Hydrogen-ready pipe and fittings
An existing gas network must be certified for pure hydrogen without being dug up. Find the chemistry, trapping microstructure and weld procedure that resist the embrittlement, while keeping strength, weldability and cost.
06Magnets without heavy rare earths
A motor magnet must lose its dysprosium and terbium and keep its coercivity at 180 °C. Find the chemistry, grain boundary treatment and processing route that hold the energy product, while keeping thermal stability, machinability and cost.
07Aluminium joined to copper
A battery pack must join aluminium to copper thousands of times and hold every joint for the life of the vehicle. Find the alloy pairing, interlayer and weld schedule that stop the intermetallic, while keeping resistance, vibration life and takt time.
08Steel without coke
The mill is moving to hydrogen-reduced iron and scrap, and every grade has to survive the residuals that arrive with them. Find the chemistry, refining route and tolerance window that carry the properties, while keeping formability, surface quality and cost.
09Structural parts from scrap
An OEM has mandated post-consumer scrap in a structural extrusion, at the properties the primary alloy gave. Find the chemistry, tramp element tolerance and homogenisation that hold the strength, while keeping extrudability, surface finish and cost.
10Parts for a new plasma
A chamber component must survive a process chemistry it was never specified for, without shedding a particle onto the wafer. Find the alloy, coating and surface treatment that resist the attack, while keeping thermal stability, cleanability and cost.