Through its acquisition of Identify3D, Materialise claims its CO-AM software platform for cloud-based access to 3D printing management and optimisation tools is the most robust and secure of its kind.
Identify3D’s product suite is designed to allow the encrypting, distributing and tracing of digital parts, preventing counterfeits and ensuring that maliciously or inadvertently modified, substandard or uncertified parts cannot enter the physical supply chain.
It also aims to give designers and engineers the ability to couple designs with specific production criteria, such as a designated user, a type of machine or material to control the production process and to meet the original manufacturing specifications.
“We believe that the factory of the future will not be a single, central location,” said Materialise CEO Fried Vancraen. “Instead, future manufacturing, enabled by smart technologies like 3D printing, will take place at multiple digital production sites, distributed around the world, closer to customers.
“But this will only be possible when companies are sure that their design and production data remains secure. This acquisition allows manufacturers to secure the flow of digital parts and maintain a competitive advantage.”
The Materialise CO-AM software platform builds on Materialise’s three decades of 3D printing experience and aims to help companies manage their 3D printing processes more efficiently through cloud-based access to multiple hardware technologies. This includes tools from Materialise and other software developers, as well as a ‘data lake’ that connects to all the user’s production tools to keeps track of what’s happening on the production floor.
“At the center of a digital supply chain is the movement of valuable data from design through manufacturing,” said Identify3D CEO Joe Inkenbrandt. “Our mission has always been to address the security and integrity of that data. Integrating our software in the Materialise CO-AM platform allows us to fully unlock its potential and give customers security and control of their data in a way never seen before in the industry.”
