Materialise has announced the launch of CO-AM, an open software platform designed to manage the additive manufacturing production process more efficiently.
With CO-AM, users of additive manufacturing will have cloud-based access to a range of software tools from Materialise and third parties that allow AM operations to be planned, managed and optimised. Materialise believes the platform will help manufacturers address the ‘untapped potential’ of AM for serial manufacturing and mass personalisation.
The open architecture of CO-AM will allow additive manufacturing users to integrate their preferred tools, and gain access to the latest software innovations, as they scale their operations. They will also have access to production data, which will enable users to continuously monitor and improve their AM workflows.
“This is an important milestone in our history,” commented Bart Van der Schueren, CTO of Materialise. “CO-AM offers new opportunities for AM users to innovate at unprecedented levels with their preferred software solutions. This open platform will allow the AM community to co-develop solutions that create competitive advantages for individual companies and empower entire industries. At the same time, this business model generates new revenue streams for hardware and software partners.”
CO-AM utilises a data-lake to connect all production tools and track what is happening on the production floor, with users able to define their unique workflows in a knowledge database that allows for continuous improvement. This, Materialise believes, creates an AI-powered learning platform where every printed part has the potential to be better than the previous one.
Through this platform, Materialise plans to offer more than 25 software applications, including a seamless integration with Magics, AM Watch for shop floor data collection and its Build Processors for connectivity with more than 150 different 3D printing systems. The CO-AM platform will also be open to independent software vendors, with the likes of AM Flow and Castor already onboarded.
“The next step for change in the AM Industry is automation,” offered Stefan Rink, CEO AM-Flow. “There are many digital dots to connect to create a full automation value chain. Teaming up with other solution providers of this chain is a prerequisite for the growth and scalability of Additive Manufacturing production. AM-Flow is very excited to be one of the first partners of the Materialise CO-AM platform.”
“CASTOR is joining forces with Materialise to capture and deliver the full potential of AM to manufacturers,” added Omer Blaier, CEO at CASTOR. “By integrating our solutions on a unified CO-AM platform, we can offer a unique combination of engineering intelligence and automation, identify suitable candidates for additive manufacturing amongst thousands of parts and go all the way to the final product within one solution, seamlessly.”
Materialise is inviting AM software vendors to connect their applications to the CO-AM software platform for selected pilot projects. Development partners will get access to the software development kit, application programming interfaces and staging environment to natively build proprietary or co-developed solutions within the platform. Materialise is exhibiting at RAPID + TCT at Booth 3108, where it will be open to discussing the CO-AM platform in more detail.
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