November 2021

We’re back from Formnext, and exhausted. What a week. I had something like 45 meetings in 4 days and the rest of the team is similar. So the Thanksgiving weekend was a welcome opportunity to unwind! I may now be in England, but my wife still takes it very seriously. So Happy Thanksgiving!! 🦃

I didn’t have my usual Formnext Flu after returning, but 2 of our team did get sick with COVID, so I’m beginning to wonder about the wisdom of holding a big tradeshow in the middle of a still-raging pandemic.

We used Formnext to set off the announcement of a whole slew of activities and partnerships. I want to tell you about them today, because I’m excited. Please don’t share though, because 2 of them are still under news embargo. 🤫

The first one is not: it’s the announcement of a major, £1.7 grant we’ve been awarded together with a stellar consortium by the UK’s Research and Innovation agency. We’re pretty excited about the aims of the 2-year project: to create a system that makes it easier to enforce rules that have been identified previously (in research and standards, for instance) and dynamically, by running tests and deploying deep learning on existing data capture. We’re committed to enabling a more reliably production, and I think the SAMRCD project is a tangible step in that direction. Read more about it here.

It’s also a sign that we’ve properly arrived in Europe with our UK subsidiary, Authentise Ltd. Our second announcement (due out December 9th) shows that too – a partnership with the leading de-powdering equipment provider, Solukon. They’ve become friends over the last year and we share a joint mission to industrialize the process. Their inclusion of a range of sensors into their equipment gave rise to a conversation about what they could be used for and we’ve developed a pretty compelling approach to the use of data such as inclusion in the traceability report, measurement of waste powder, and, ultimately, automatic toolpathing based on design. This will be the first time that we include non-additive, post-processing data into our data-stream and we couldn’t be more excited to do it with Solukon.

Speaking of novel integrations: We’re also announcing (Dec 2nd) an integration with Riven. They’ve developed an astonishing sensor+algorithm package that makes it possible to detect the flaws in as-printed designs, and deliver the compensation for those flaws, in a fraction of the time it currently takes. We’re excited to be integrating their output, as well as providing some of the required data (such as as-designed CAD and parameters) because the reduced iteration times help get us to where the industry needs to be: fast, reliable production designs.

There are so many more integrations that are possible, and automations that need to be brought into reality in pursuit of that goal. But working with Riven and Solukon is an excellent start.

We look forward to working with you in that pursuit too! Speak soon!