The manufacturing intelligence division at Hexagon (Stockholm, Sweden) is partnering with Authentise (Mountain View, California, USA) to better connect the value chain from design, manufacturing operations, and quality assurance. The objective is to make additive manufacturing (AM) more predictable, repeatable, and traceable, according to the companies.
Data from shopfloor manufacturing operations, engineering data from the design phase, and materials properties and quality data from validation and inspection processes hold the key to automating serial production improvements and enabling design improvements. However, the companies contend that the technical challenge of connecting these silos and applying these data have inhibited the ability to consistently apply AM to new designs. New solutions delivered through the partnership will apply statistical process control (SPC) with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) methods to mitigate waste and quality issues during the design phase and improve the repeatability of AM processes within a site or between global locations.
Through the partnership, Hexagon and Authentise will build solutions to industrialize AM technology by digitizing every step of the workflow, ranging from part design through production to final product and quality assurance. This will be done by utilizing their unique stack of technology capabilities to connect a part’s digital thread and trace its pedigree. This is made possible by a shared commitment to open architectures that integrate data and automate workflows.
“Together with Authentise, we are building a next-generation framework for our customers to manage flexible, fully digitized production workflows in private cloud environments,” says Mathieu Pérennou, global business development director for additive manufacturing at Hexagon. “For manufacturers, AM is a complex and changing market with many excellent tools, printers and materials to apply. We believe our open and flexible systems will enable us to respond quickly to customers’ needs and integrate with their unique environments. This will connect the data flow and help streamline their workflows in all stages of the AM process—before, during, and after production and support their specific standards or compliance needs.”
Authentise is a key partner in Hexagon’s open AM ecosystem, having built an open manufacturing execution system tailored to the specific needs of AM methods. This ecosystem provides a broad solution portfolio that allows Hexagon to build solutions tailored to the specific needs of customers from different industries and any level of complexity—from achieving high-volume production of precision metal gears to first-time production of bespoke aerospace parts from composites.
“We are excited to combine Hexagon's solutions with our open workflow management engine to offer a unique end-to-end solution platform,” says Andre Wegner, CEO of Authentise. “Integrating data from Hexagon’s best-of-breed software and sensors helps deliver a seamless experience for users, automation across their process, and unlocks the ability to learn from data. This partnership represents a step change for the industry—together, we’re delivering the integrated digital thread for additive manufacturing that customers have sought for so long.”
Sources: Authentise, www.authentise.com; Hexagon, www.hexagon.com.