Engineering Efficiency: From Additive Manufacturing to Optimized Injection Molding

Interview with Andrew Sartorelli of Synera for CDFAM NYC 2024

In this interview, Andrew Sartorelli of Synera discusses the company's approach to automating engineering workflows, focusing on their Moldflow Connector and other software integrations ahead of his presentation at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium in NYC.

Synera's low-code, visual programming interface aims to simplify the process of creating complex workflows, enabling engineers to share their logic and streamline design processes.

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Given your background in developing advanced engineering software, how has your experience informed the development and integration of Synera’s partner platform, particularly for injection molded parts?

One thing I’ve learned over my times working at companies like Autodesk, nTop, Hexagon, and now Synera, is not one company holds all the tools to allow for this holy grail of an end-to-end workflows in different fields, whether it be injection molding or additive manufacturing.

At Synera we try to take the approach of bringing together a lot of different software partners through our ecosystem and allow customers to create automations that are more than just the sum of the parts.

For injection molding we’re really trying to bring together a lot of different software tools and partners in the process chain in a way that hasn’t been done before to my knowledge, and that’s really exciting to me.

How does the Moldflow connector in Synera enhance existing workflows, and who are the key engineers and stakeholders that benefit from this integration?

The Moldflow connector and some of our upcoming integrations for example to SimCon’s CADMould allow domain experts in the field of injection molding simulation to bring their skills to designers and design engineers through easy to use automations for a standard part families.

Having these automations available to quickly be used by others, frees up time for the experts to focus on doing innovative or truely value-added work.

These experts can figure out how to create a new process to optimize for weld line locations for example, or even embark on massive multi-objective optimization projects spanning multiple software solutions to create the next generation of large scale injection molded parts for structural applications.

Synera is designed to automate and optimize engineering processes. What software and data do customers need to provide to set up these automations, and how long does it typically take to go from setup to fully utilizing the automated processes?

Our goal at Synera is that customers bring the software that they are already using, we’re not trying to replace any tools in their toolbelt, but just allow them to get more value out of them.

Then it really depends on what the customer wants to achieve, we have integrations to all major CAD tools to allow for not just reading data but updating parameters from parts and assemblies, we’ve built off-the-shelf integrations for Siemens Teamcenter and PTC Windchill, to allow customers to build automations tying into their enterprise systems.

Simple automations can take only hours to put together, thanks to templates and our marketplace of addins, more complex automations may take days or weeks to put together.

For instance if you just want to automatically extract some parts out of a PLM system, grab some meta-data, make a parameter update, and send the part back into PLM we are talking hours.

However, if you want to automate the design of an entire vehicle with hundreds of subcomponents then obviously we are talking in larger timescales. 

Synera aims to simplify complex processes through a user-friendly interface and shareable templates. How do these features help engineering teams streamline their workflows and reduce repetitive tasks?

Much of what we do at Synera is focused on lowering the barrier of entry to automate engineering processes.

It’s not that automating Autodesk Moldflow or Altair Hypermesh or Microsoft Powerpoint weren’t possible before Synera, but often it required scripting in different languages or taping into different APIs, so it was technically difficult to tie everything together in one place and it needed a lot of effort.

With our visual environment, it’s easier to take what’s in your head and get it onto the canvas and construct complex workflows, ultimately enabling the use to share their logic and thinking with others.

Previously when an engineer wanted to share their process maybe it was a Word doc or maybe a page on Confluence, now they can share their process visually with all their thinking and logic laid out and commented.

There are some folks that don’t need to understand the inner workings of a process, which is where our latest product Synera Run comes into play, allowing individuals to easily consume Synera workflows through their browser with a simplified interface. 

Synera started with a focus on additive manufacturing but has since expanded into other areas. How does your experience with other sectors influence the development of new features and integrations in Synera?

Synera, or in those days Elise, started out focused on biomimicry, which of course naturally lent itself to additive manufacturing, since then the company has progressed along with our customer base and we expanded our focus to areas like injection molding and foundational aspects of engineering today like FEA.

From my time in this industry, I’ve learned that it takes a sizable investment to get to state that you have a software solution that is truly useful and beneficial for engineers, there aren’t many easy wins in engineering software space.

At Synera we’ve become laser focused on trying to solve deep problems for specific markets, which means we have committed to invest years in some initiatives.

For something like automating the design of injection molding parts, you need connections to CAD tools, then you need connections to injection molding simulation software products like Moldflow or CADMould, if it’s an automotive component then you’ll need to map simulation results to your structural data in LS-DYNA, finally you need to tie in costing with a tool like FACTON. And this only speaks of the part design and not the process chain for the design of the mold which these days is probably 3D printed before being machined.

So really it becomes a huge problem to try to solve, but with a degree of focus we’re seeing our customers make significant advances in those focus areas.

In your opinion, what are the key indicators for a company to consider adopting Synera for their engineering challenges, and how does Synera facilitate the transition to a more automated workflow?

We often see our companies start to turn to Synera when they are struggling to meet tight deadlines for an RFQ process, maybe they aren’t able to be as innovative as they want against upcoming competitors with less bureaucracy, or they’ve finally decided to kick off a digitalization initiative.

Engineering managers and leaders quickly realize solving these problems just by adding more resources or hiring more contractors isn’t a sustainable long-term solution, so they turn to automation just like other departments in their companies have.

At Synera, we try to ease the transition into process automation for the engineering departments by bringing all the connections to their existing software solutions to them off the shelf, so there isn’t a need for a big consulting or customization project just to get started.

And of course Synera is there to support with on-site onboarding workshops, our free online learning system, and an ever growing library of templates and examples in the product. 

What do you see as the main obstacles to wider adoption of process automation in engineering, and how does Synera help companies overcome these challenges?

The biggest obstacle to adoption until recently is there hasn’t been a solution focused on process automation for engineers.

There are process automation tools for other departments like Zapier or PowerAutomate from Microsoft, but they are ill-suited for automating engineering tasks. There of course were PIDO tools existing in the engineering space, but most seemed to focus heavily on the design optimization aspect rather than the process aspect.

With Synera we’ve tried to really emphasize the process aspect. The next hurdle is really having good APIs available for the software tools that engineers use, as products transition to the cloud we see much more accessible RestAPIs which solves this problem, but the fact is most engineers still use desktop applications.

As much as possible we try to offer these off-the-shelf connections thanks to many of our partners, that drops the barrier there as well.

No longer do you need a software engineer to create an automation around a tool used by mechanical engineers.

Finally, what do you hope the audience will take away from your presentation at CDFAM, and what are you looking forward to gaining from your participation in the event?

Synera has had the privilege to participate in the two previous CDFAM events and for us it’s just as much about us inspiring folks to see what is possible with process automation for engineers, as it is for learning from all the other rockstars that are in attendance and presenting.

I don’t think there is any better place to interact with individuals at the forefront of applying new technologies in the engineering space and those that are trying to create the tools to support them than CDFAM. And with Synera customers attending and even presenting, I’m especially looking forward to see what exciting new processes they’ve automated.