QuesTek Innovations officially launched its ICMD digital platform for materials engineering, qualification and certification. While innovators have been evaluating and using this valuable toolset for more than a year, QuesTek is now offering the cloud-based SaaS to organizations of all types that want to enable digital transformation of materials engineering and the materials value chain.
“Revolutionary products are increasingly the result of materials concurrency — the simultaneous development of high-performance products and novel materials that enable them,” says QuesTek president Jason Sebastian. “ICMD facilitates and streamlines this practice like never before.”
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ICMD — which stands for “Integrated Computational Materials Design” — is built on computational physics models derived from hundreds of materials science engagements QuesTek has completed on behalf of clients such as NASA, SpaceX, Apple, GM, Boeing and Audi since 1997.The software also uses machine learning when beneficial to solving a particular materials challenge.
“Some of the most innovative organizations in the world have been exercising ICMD over the past year,” says QuesTek COO Bill Mahoney. “We’ve found that in addition to designing novel materials to enable greater performance, clients can use the breadth of toolkits in the platform to benefit a range of materials processes, such as using the qualifications toolkit within ICMD to dramatically speed up the process of testing and certifying materials.“
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In one recent example, QuesTek announced a partnership with Norsk Titanium to advance the breakthrough use of nickel alloy wire in directed energy deposition (DED) additive manufacturing.This development effort provides manufacturers an alternative to casting for large aerospace and industrial components, bypassing significant supply chain delays and shortening long lead times.
ICMD can shave years off the timeline of qualifying new materials in industries such as medical devices, where materials innovation is increasingly an effective means to advance performance and differentiate products.The software is also a highly effective tool to help OEMs and suppliers meet sustainability targets through lightweighting and developing alloys with greener compositions that exclude or minimize rare earth elements.
“QuesTek will continue to provide materials consulting and service engagements for commercial and government clients,” says Sebastian. “ICMD allows a broader range of offerings for QuesTek. Organizations that wish to use the technology independently may do so, and our team can also provide whatever level of support or collaboration is needed. ICMD dramatically increases the reach and impact of QuesTek’s expertise while bringing greater scale to our mission to drive innovation through materials science.“
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