After announcing their first collaboration in 2018, Identify3D and SLM Solutions have expanded their cooperation to productize their current joint developments to secure intellectual property in the additive manufacturing process chain. As SLM Solutions looks to the future of metal AM and many of its customers focus on production with selective laser melting machines, the integration of Identify3D will provide a solution for data protection and licensing from design to manufacturing.
Identify3D software includes modules to protect, manage, enforce and trace data between design and creation on SLM Solutions’ machines. To defend from counterfeit procedures and the loss of intellectual property, data is secured in encrypted files offering the owner traceability of their designs as well as the transparency to know who is utilizing the file. Qualified processes are locked to limit operator error and ensure compliance, repeatability and quality control.
“Identify3D software integrates into users’ current workflows but offers a new level of process security,” stated Stephan Thomas, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Identify3D. “Manufacturers can implement different strategies to limit the number of times a part can be printed, set an expiration date on the design and automatically delete files from machines after a build. Validity checks allow an audit of their design throughout the selective laser melting process.”
“SLM Solutions recognizes the trend as additive transforms manufacturing into a digital workflow,” said Dr. Gereon Heinemann, CTO of SLM Solutions Group AG. “By working together with Identify3D, we aim to offer users not only robust manufacturing systems, but a strategy to integrate both security and traceability which are essential elements to production manufacturing processes.”
