PrintParts, a New York-based provider of additive manufacturing services, has begun shipping its first set of3D printed SmartPartsto select customers.
SmartParts于今年早些时候宣布，是3D打印的组件，可集成公司专有的数字签名技术，使其可扫描，序列化和连接。旨在实现身份验证和可追溯性，SmartParts过程通过将可编程纳米颗粒嵌入到一部分中，然后可以使用智能扫描仪检测和注册。
“Many of our customers are looking to adopt additive for production, but have legitimate concerns around verifying materials, managing suppliers, and how to authenticate manufacturing data,” explains Robert Haleluk, CEO of PrintParts. “If our industry wants to move further into production applications, we need to introduce technology that solves these problems and provides the security, as well as traceability, that companies expect.”
Disrupting on-demand manufacturing with PrintParts
Since its founding in 2016, PrintParts has steadily grown its portfolio of 3D printers to more than fifty. The firm currently provides five different additive manufacturing technologies, including FDM, SLA, and SLS, supplying customers in sectors such as aerospace, medical, and automotive. According to PrintParts, it has the largest fleet ofFormlabs Fuse 1printers on the market, which it uses to 3D print polymer parts made of Nylon PA11 and PA12.
Having now developed and tested its SmartParts technology with several 3D printing processes, PrintParts is now offering SmartParts as a service.
SmartParts: enabling traceability in 3D printing
At its core, the SmartParts technology connects manufacturing data to 3D printed parts. By embedding nanoparticles in components and scanning them via haptic and audio feedback, SmartPart users can trace parts through the additive manufacturing process chain. With a part scan, it’s possible to confirm its 3D printing technology, confirm PrintParts as the supplier, verify the material used, and even add information to the part’s digital twin.
数字扫描部分存储的历史on PrintParts’ browser-based SmartParts platform, where the authentication and part tracing functionality can be found. The platform is also integrable with existing MES/ERP systems.
PrintParts believes its innovation will be a gamechanger for companies and organizations that require full traceability or certified materials in their 3D printing workflows, including those in the defense sector. With SmartParts, customers can also ensure their parts conform to predefined manufacturing specifications.
In fact,PrintParts was one of the five winners of the Formnext Start-up Challenge 2021。The competition pits young additive manufacturing enterprises with less than five years of trading experience against each other based on their novel business ideas and technological achievements. The firm will also be demonstrating SmartParts at theformnexttrade show在11月16日至19日之间，在德国法兰克福（12.0 B81b）。
To truly ensure performance in distributed 3D printed parts, traceability in the process chain is key. Earlier this year, 3D printing software developerAuthentisepartnered with theManufacturing Intelligence division的Hexagon AB, a Sweden-based global technology company, to developsoftware capable of making 3D printing more traceable。The program digitizes every step of the additive manufacturing workflow by expanding the control loop from the machine level to include data from design, manufacturing operations, and quality assurance.
Elsewhere,Renishawhas previously partnered with software development firmTRACEamto deploy anend-to-end quality management tool for industrial additive manufacturing systems。该软件直接集成到Renishaw的Infiniam API生态系统中，旨在为客户提供一种简单可扩展的跟踪和管理AM零件的方法。
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Featured image shows a 3D printed SmartPart being scanned by a handheld smart scanner. Photo via PrintParts.
