Interesting news from Authentise today regarding three separate partnerships.
Authentise is a software company focused on additive manufacturing. They’ve realized that there is often a disconnect between the different entities that are required to perform AM.
It’s more than just “printing”. Orders have to be collected, designs shared, job layouts stored, logs collected and much more. Early adopters of 3D printing did all this and more manually, sometimes with overly-complex spreadsheets, but that’s not the right way to do it.
Their cloud-based software platform, Flows, provides a way to integrate all required functions to provide a single path for production workflows. Their slogan is: “Connected additive manufacturing: shopfloor production management from quote to part”.
They provide ways to communicate between parties — which may not all be within the same organization — as well as digital warehousing of 3D models and spare part designs, material management, RFQ responses, machine connectivity, customized workflows, and much more.
It turns out there are incredible opportunities to provide value along that workflow path. One recent addition in this theme is their 3DGPT AI-powered assistant. This tool provides information about AM, having been specifically trained on the topic.
While Authentise has been busy selling their service to a wide variety of companies and organizations, they announced today three interesting partnerships.
The first is METAMAT, a partnership intended to provide a way to seamlessly produce complex lattice structures. While there are certainly tools to generate 3D printable lattices, these are not necessarily integrated into production workflows. This project involves not only Authentise, but also NS85, Teesside University, Lancaster University, and Holdson, and is funded by Innovate UK.
The second initiative is DISTOPIA, a partnership to develop a ready-to-use plasma DED (direct energy deposition) system for manufacturing. The partnership also includes EPOCH, AMRC, Queen Mary University London, ION Metal, and Turkish Aerospace, and is funded by Innovate UK and enabled by Eureka.
The final project is AM-Verify. In this partnership, Authentise is one of ten projects funded by the US Department of Energy. The intent is to develop a secure real-time measurement system that can detect security breaches in additive manufacturing workflows. Participants also include I3D MFG and Addiguru. Authentise explains:
“The result will not only improve cyber security, but also aid AM manufacturers in their ability to improve manufacturing quality assurance, marking a significant leap towards safer and more reliable AM practices.”
These are all very intriguing projects in their own right, but here we have three of them, announced all at once. It seems that Authentise will be able to significantly enhance their value proposition as a result of participation in these initiatives.
Via Authentise
