This paper shows the work completed by Progressive Technology to improve the design process for safety critical end use components produced using additive manufacturing. Currently a designer relies on a generic material model, which may not represent the material and machine characteristics of the intended additive manufacturing process. There has been much research concerning the effect of weld plume control in laser beam welding with agreement that failure to remove the weld plume effectively has a detrimental consequence on part quality. A new Complex Laminar Flow Nozzle, was investigated with the intention of controlling the removal of the weld plume from above the weld pool, was compared to a baseline for both Inconel 625 and Inconel 718. The data gathered was utilised to improve the accuracy of a simple FE simulation. Recommendations on the most cost-efficient way to collect material properties and correlate an FE model with real world data to establish accurate FE models that inform intelligent design are also made.