Renishaw and Identify3D announced an important new development for metal additive manufacturing at Rapid+TCT. Both companies are partnering to develop Identify3D’s software suite for the protection of metal printed intellectual property. Moreover, the software will enable companies to also ensure manufacturing repeatability and traceability to counter security threats.
Both companies have been collaborating on adjacent projects since 2017. Renishaw and Identify3D previously produced an end-to-end, secure digital manufacturing process for supply chains in various industries, including aerospace, automotive, defense and medical. The idea was that it would allow the customers of these firms achieve data security and IP protection. This new IP protection software suite is a natural extension of that same line of work.
“As metal AM grows and matures, we are seeing an increased requirement to move models, part design know-how, printer files, manufacturing rules, and large data — particularly machine sensor and Quality Assurance [QA]/Quality Control [QC] data — around our customers’ supply chains,” says Stephen Anderson, Additive Manufacturing Business Development Manager at Renishaw.
Metal Print IP Protection
The protection process aims to push data through end-users, OEMs, suppliers and third-party contractors safely and soundly. The Identify3D software suite offers three main function. The Identify3D Protect program is for creating cloud-based encryption services, primarily for build files. Engineers can create these and group them using business and production licensing rules.
Similarly, Identify3D Manage, as the name suggests, manages the secure digital distribution of this data. As the company put it in their press release: “Identify3D Manage™ includes new authorization control via Auth0 for single sign-on support and the ability to access controls defined by system roles and privileges“. The company has also already equipped it with multi-language support, so the Identify3D software can operate effectively worldwide.
Finally, Identify3D Enforce is effectively the active safeguard in this situation. It authenticates and decrypts the containers, imposing the business and production rules during manufacturing. Fabrizio De Pasquale, VP Business Development and Strategic Accounts at Identify3D, explains, “Following our pilot projects, Identify3D’s software solution can now be implemented with Renishaw AM machines. Because the data package can define the machine parameters, a part can be manufactured repeatably according to initial certification, independent of location and time.”
Featured image courtesy of Identify3D and Renishaw.