ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, 3D PRINTING
Materialise | March 21, 2023
Sigma Additive Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASI) ("Sigma," "we," "our," or the "Company"), a leading provider of quality assurance software to the commercial 3D printing industry, today announced that it has expanded its collaboration with Materialise, a global leader in 3D printing software and service solutions, to provide additive manufacturing (AM) users automated quality control by integrating the PrintRite3D® quality assurance solution into the new software solution Materialise Process Control.
Combining multiple complementary data sources and analytic methods allows businesses to make faster, data-driven decisions, improving operational efficiency and driving revenue growth. Materialise Process Control allows manufacturers to analyze and correlate layer data from the 3D printing process. Sigma and Materialise collaborated to integrate PrintRite3D® into Process Control and to make it available in CO-AM, Materialise’s end-to-end software platform for 3D printing. Sigma’s PrintRite3D® suite provides in-process data, including thermal data from the melt pool, yielding layer data that can enable users to find the root cause of defects faster.
According to Sigma Additive Solutions Chief Executive Officer Jacob Brunsberg, “We’re thrilled to build upon Sigma’s existing collaboration with Materialise, bringing a holistic quality offering to the additive industry and displaying it for the first time at AMUG 2023. Incorporating automated holistic quality offerings on the CO-AM platform will place vital data in the hands of owners and operators, allowing them to make informed decisions regarding the reliability and safety of components they produce.”
Bart Van der Schueren, CTO of Materialise, added, “Materialise Process Control uses artificial intelligence to automate quality control, helping our customers save significant time and money. Through collaborations with partners like Sigma Additive Solutions, AM users benefit from a technology-agnostic innovation that offers unparalleled insights into their 3D printing process. With this data, our customers can continuously learn how to improve it.”
Collaborating with Materialise, Sigma is committed to helping businesses succeed by providing innovative technology solutions that improve operational efficiency, drive revenue growth, and enhance customer satisfaction. Sigma Additive Solutions and Materialise are hosting a joint presentation at AMUG 2023, Room 5C, 5th Floor, Hilton Chicago Hotel at 10:30 am CT on March 21st as well as displaying our integration at Materialise’s booth, P21, Salon D at AMUG 2023 from March 19-23.
About Materialise
Materialise incorporates three decades of 3D printing experience into a range of software solutions and 3D printing services, which together form the backbone of the 3D printing industry. Materialise’s open and flexible solutions enable players in a wide variety of industries, including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, art and design, and consumer goods, to build innovative 3D printing applications that aim to make the world a better and healthier place. Headquartered in Belgium, with branches worldwide, Materialise combines the largest group of software developers in the industry with one of the largest 3D printing facilities in the world.
About Sigma Additive Solutions
Sigma Additive Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of in-process quality assurance (IPQA™) solutions to the additive manufacturing industry. Sigma specializes in the development and commercialization of real-time monitoring and analytics known as PrintRite3D® for 3D metal and polymer advanced manufacturing technologies. PrintRite3D detects and classifies defects and anomalies real-time during the manufacturing process, enabling significant cost-savings and production efficiencies by reducing waste, increasing yield, and shortening cycle times. Sigma believes its software solutions will be a major catalyst for the acceleration and adoption of industrial 3D printing.
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MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY, ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION
Machina Labs | March 20, 2023
Machina Labs today announced that the United States Air Force (USAF) has awarded Machina Labs $1.6M to advance and accelerate the development of its robotic technology for manufacturing of metal tooling for high-rate production of composites.
Higher vehicle production rates in comparison to current rates is anticipated as experts project that the airline industry will need to triple its fleet to about 60,000 airplanes over the next 20 years. With respect to military applications, there is a similar drive towards balancing mission agility, sustainment, and vehicle cost; giving rise to emerging air vehicle concepts like the Low-Cost Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP) program where there is a higher tolerance over limited life and loss of vehicles during operations.
In addition, Advanced/Urban Air Mobility (AAM/UAM) vehicles have received considerable commercial traction in recent years. These highly automated, on-demand passenger and air cargo vehicles are anticipated to have production rates in the tens to hundreds of thousands per year. Lightweight, high-strength composite structures are a key enabler for achieving these goals. As such, the factory throughputs of advanced composite structures have to be increased and their production cost lowered.
Machina Labs’ AFWERX Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) contract will be focused on metal tooling for a fast-cure, out-of-autoclave (OOA) composite processing route. Through its previous contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory, Machina Labs has validated that its tools have vacuum integrity, are dimensionally stable once thermally stabilized, and are thermally more responsive than conventional metal tools.
Composite tooling, depending on the materials selected and the tool size, could cost more than $1 million per tool and require 8-10 months of lead time. These costs and lead times for composite tooling do not support referenced increased manufacturing goals.
“Machina Labs has demonstrated that its large-envelope, two-robot, incremental sheet metal forming technology can be used for manufacturing of metal tooling for composites resulting in dramatically reduced tool costs and time-to-market of composite parts,” according to Craig Neslen, Manufacturing Lead for the ACP Program at AFRL. “At the same time, given that no part-specific hardware is necessary for manufacturing of the sheet metal tools, it is possible to not only fabricate the tools expeditiously, but to quickly accommodate design changes when necessary.”
Machina Labs uses robots the way a blacksmith uses a hammer to creatively manufacture different designs and material, introducing unseen flexibility and agility to the manufacturing industry. The company’s manufacturing platform combines the latest advances in robotics and AI so great ideas can quickly and affordably turn to reality and businesses can benefit from rapid iteration to bring more innovative products to market, faster.
“We are pleased to advance our work with USAF in order to advance composite tooling for a wide variety of applications,” according to Babak Raeisinia, Co-Founder and Head of Applications & Partnerships at Machina Labs. “Keeping inventory of tooling is expensive. I believe technology will free up capital and allow organizations such as USAF to transition to an on-demand tooling model.”
Machina Labs combines the latest advances in AI and robotics to deliver finished metal products in days – not months or years – and gives customers unprecedented time to market and competitive advantage. Robotic sheet forming is the first process enabled by Machina’s patented manufacturing platform. Using material- and geometry-agnostic technology, the platform outperforms traditional sheet forming methods that rely on custom molds or dies.
About Machina Labs
Founded in 2019 by aerospace and automotive industry veterans, Machina Labs is an advanced manufacturing company based in Los Angeles, California. Enabled by advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics, Machina Labs is developing Software-Defined Factories of the Future. The mission of the company is to develop modular manufacturing solutions that can be reconfigured to manufacture new products simply by changing the software.
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ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, 3D PRINTING
Oqton | March 14, 2023
On March 13, 2023, Oqton, a provider of software that helps manufacturers boost productivity and creativity through the intelligent automation of production, and Baker Hughes, a leader in energy technology, announced the formation of a commercial software development and technical partnership.
The agreement will combine the engineering and manufacturing know-how of the two companies to create an industrial digital ecosystem that will revolutionize how products are brought to market in highly regulated sectors like the aerospace, energy, and healthcare industries.
The system aims to speed up the design and production of additively built parts throughout the manufacturing workflow. This will increase productivity and make it easier to facilitate compliance.
As part of the development agreement, Baker Hughes is incorporating Oqton's Manufacturing OS into its workflow, including the company's patented additive manufacturing technologies developed for vertical applications over the past decade. As a result, the firms will be able to improve the additive manufacturing platform for the energy industry by combining Oqton's self-sufficient approach to production with Baker
Baker Hughes specializes in developing and implementing manufacturing processes in highly regulated industrial environments. The companies look forward to paving the way for developing additional applications and plug-ins that will be incorporated into the Oqton Manufacturing OS and allow them to expand into new markets with more stringently regulated industries with more demanding end-use applications, such as the aerospace and healthcare sectors.
Dr. Ben Schrauwen, SVP and General Manager of Oqton, stated, "We believe that manufacturing is going through its most significant phase of disruption since the first industrial revolution."
(Source – Globe Newswire)
Jim Sessions, Vice President for Completions, Interventions and Measurements at Baker Hughes, remarked, "As an energy technology company, Baker Hughes is fully committed to the development of the most advanced technologies looking for more efficient, more reliable, and cleaner energy solutions."
(Source – Globe Newswire)
About Oqton
By delivering end-to-end software solutions for additive manufacturing, 3D scanning, and robotic welding, Oqton speeds up intelligent manufacturing, which in turn aids industrial and healthcare enterprises in their pursuit of efficiency and innovation. The company's additive manufacturing platform provides AI-powered features for additive design, image segmentation, build prep, MES, simulation and additive inspection, enabling total traceability and visibility across an organization.
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