At the 2023 AMUG Conference, Materialise launched the latest strings to the CO-AM platform's bow.
Surrounded by around 2,000 additive manufacturing (AM) users, one of the industry's leading software firms was keen to explain how its latest product releases could enhance productivity and quality, while saving end users time and money.
Process Control has been designed to allow users to analyse and correlate layer data from the 3D printing process to identify defective parts before they are sent to post-processing and quality inspection, while the Build Processor SDK is said to facilitate the creation of tailored build parameters to specific applications.
As the company announced its new Process Control and Build Processor SDK tools to the market, TCT caught up with Materialise VP and GM Bryan Crutchfield [BC] to understand more.
TCT: As you come to events like the AMUG Conference, what is your feel for where the AM industry is at?
BC: You've heard Fried talk about the slow revolution, it's really turning a corner into manufacturing, I would say, a lot of our customers now have done their exploration, they've played around with various technologies, now they're starting to find their uses. And starting to scale those uses up and/or plan for the future scale of those uses. They see that there's application for the technology, whether that's in a niche product or a certain vertical, or if they're trying to address longtail, and you think of capital goods. And so now they're starting to develop the systems and the platforms around that to take it to scale. So, that's really what we see as the customers are starting to really embrace it from a manufacturing point of view.
TCT: And what do you see as the challenges that need a bit more focus and discussion?
BC: Well, it's the interconnectivity. We've certainly tried to address that as we introduced our CO-AM platform. But building out ecosystems like that with partners and strong APIs so that customers can have that harmonious experience and do what they need to do inside of one digital workflow. I feel like that's the key to success. I mean, the usual things are still there, capital costs of the machines, the material cost, but those are slowly, slowly slowly coming down. Now, it's about creating systems that work well together to make life easier for the user.
TCT: At AMUG, you’ve announced a solution for automated process control. What was the motivation behind launching this product?
BC: As things are moving into manufacturing, process control becomes extremely important. In the past, with 3D printing, when things are in a prototype mode, you can make a mistake. Serial manufacturing is far, far different than that, you want to have good quality systems in place, good Poka-Yoke systems in place and process control is part of that, being able to use some automated systems to monitor the builds as they go to make sure the correct parameters were engaged in the machine and the melt pool and [so on]. And so that becomes an important part of the process of getting it into serial manufacturing.
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TCT: One of the key capabilities of this tool is to address defects – talk to me about the significance of that.
BC: Well, it's less scrap, it's the ability to do process verification, which is really important. I always use a story from automotive. When I was working in a suspension group, you can torque a bolt. And bolts can torque but not be correctly seated, because you can cross thread a bolt. So, there was always a window that you would count the number of rotations and the torque and then you knew you had got to the correct part, the correct seating requirement. It's very similar, if you look at a 3D printer, if you know the melt pool is at a certain temperature, the speed is correct, the powder is correct, you should get a good part out of the backside. And so it's just bringing traditional manufacturing quality techniques now to additive because it is moving into that serial manufacturing mode.
TCT: You’re working with Sigma Additive Solutions and Phase3D to deliver Process Control, what have they brought to the table?
BC: So Phase 3D brings a topographical map of the build to make sure the heights are all correct. And then Sigma Additive brings in that thermal monitoring and so when you combine those two, that window I was talking about with a fastener helps you to reassure that, as you look down through those layers, everything was done correctly.
Every company has its strengths and weaknesses. And those are companies that have focused very specifically on those applications. That's not something that we've done in the past. Every company also has scarce resources, right? We're very good at looking at the platform itself, the preprint functions that we've traditionally had with Magics and Stage and all those things. And so, for us, this is just an extension of what we've always done, right? We're very proud of the fact that we've been an open company for 30 years, we have a couple of hundred partners in our own ecosystem. And so deploying those partners now, into Process Control, and ultimately, into CO-AM, it's just the digitisation of our business model. And we feel like it's the winning business model. If you try to do everything yourself, you're mediocre at everything you're not good at anything.
TCT: What’s your assessment of collaboration throughout the industry?
BC: I think it's getting better. I think more people are seeing that that's the wave of the future, that no single company has all the answers. No machine company has all the technologies first off, and then no software company, including ourselves, has the ability to address every single piece of what's going to be needed, whether it's quality, or preprint, or vendor management, so you have to draw reasonable boundaries, and then create strong partnerships with companies that are good in those areas, to bring a best in class solution to the customers.
TCT: Materialise has also launched the Build Processor SDK – what are the issues being addressed here?
BC: Traditionally, we've been approaching the OEMs, individually. And they all have different architectures, they all have different data models, and that becomes a big bowl of spaghetti to manage, because every time they make a change on their architecture level, or what have you, we have to redo the connections. And then you cascade that across customers, it becomes a big thing to manage. So, rather than do that now, what we're trying to do is create an SDK that allows the OEM that wants to connect to our ecosystem - which most of them do, there's some that are still pretty closed, but the majority of them are pretty open to that - and it allows for very easy integration to the build processor architecture that we have, that can bring all their customers onto the platform relatively easy. And so, for us, it was just an easier way to bring all of those OEMs in and to have a mutually beneficial relationship where it's not a lot of development on both sides, [it's] a little bit of development and you can go.
TCT: In terms of the idea of customised build parameters, what have been the challenges in trying to facilitate that in the past? And what opportunities does this offering open up?
BC: The challenges have been that a lot of the OEMs have traditionally been very closed to information inside their machines, now most of them have become much more open to that. And so to the extent that we can connect our APIs in a very easy way, that allows a push-pull of information, we can push build parameters and geometries and all those sorts of thing in, they can push log files, or any in-situ data centres that are there back out, because all that as we move into certified manufacturing, everybody wants that data to create a data lake. So, we call it Plan, Do, Check. It's really a riff on Plan, Do, Check, Act - the 'act' is for the customers - but creating that data lake and knowing that you've built correctly for any kind of regulatory or product liability reasons. But also, you can mine that data and say, 'How do I get better?' That's what traditional manufacturing does. You think of injection moulders or CNC companies, how they build and how they've taken the data to change how they build, that's their competitive advantage. So, all of that enables traditional manufacturers now to create competitive advantage inside of additive and just bring it in as a valuable tool inside of their manufacturing facilities.
TCT: How do the two solutions announced this week integrate into CO-AM?
BC: They sit on top, they're like applications for CO-AM. CO-AM is the platform, the backbone that everything's running on, these would be applications inside of that platform. Now, the Build Processor SDK allows that final step to get to the machines and more easily get information on and off. And the process control is for the quality side of CO-AM. Because there's going to be planning, there's going to be preprint, there's going to be actual execution of 3D printing, then there'll be quality and vendor management and all that sort of stuff has to play well together. But then ultimately, all of that has to connect to larger enterprise type systems like ERP systems, CRM systems, things like that.
TCT: So, everything we see from Materialise going forward is going to feed back into the CO-AM platform?
BC: Yes. Now, we're not abandoning our traditional products by any stretch of the imagination as we continue to develop and enhance those. But more and more, you're gonna see all those tools also be resident on the platform.
TCT: What can you tell us about the interest and adoption of the CO-AM platform since it was launched?
BC: It's been very good. It's something that I think [our customers] all have yearned for over the years. They are tired of opening up a bunch of different applications to get the workflow that they needed. And so they see the vision where obviously there's a roadmap, it's gonna take a little time to get all those partners together, but once it's there, they're going to be able to pick up best in class workflow that suits their solution, and isn't always going to be our stuff. I think of it this way. If we're truly going to be an open platform you have to think of it is like an Apple phone. Yeah, there's Apple apps on there, but there's also Google apps on there and there's also Microsoft apps on there. And it's the user who decides what's the correct application for them. That's our vision for CO-AM as well. The users will get the best in class workflow for them served up on a platform.
TCT: Quickparts is one of the first public adopters of the CO-AM platform. How much potential does CO-AM have for businesses like that?
BC: That's where it stretches its legs is distributed manufacturing. Because you can take a company like Quickparts and Ziad [Abou, Quickparts CEO] will tell you one of the biggest advantages he has now is he can see his global capacity, where before he had individual plants, they were operating on various systems, some of them connected, some of them not, it's very difficult to tell just how much capacity did he have in any particular technology, difficult to control, as you may have read, where to route things, put it that way. And so this gives them much better control over the operations. There are user defined views and security. So, it just overall makes it much easier for management to manage both the capital and human resources.
As we go down their journey of building out the correct workflow for them - and it's quite flexible, we're doing some of the front end portal pieces, where[as] they feel like the customer side of that portal they want to own so they they have their IP resident on there, the touch and feel is going to be from them, their pricing algorithms, all that is going to be their system.
TCT: Finally, what are the conversations users are having with you and your colleagues at events like the AMUG Conference?
BC: Mostly about efficiency. I think this year is a bit of a weird year with everything going on in the economy. And so budgets are tight. So, everybody's interested in how do I get more out of what I already have, how do I spend some effective dollars to really get more efficiency out of the machines I have? Or how do I plan myself to scale? And there's a number of customers who are starting fairly small. But they're planning, yeah, I only got five machines now, but in the next few years, I'll have 10 or 15. And after that, I'm gonna have 20 or 40. We're thinking about now, how to set up sort of when they can scale, it's easier.
