Materialise, a 3D-printing solutions provider, acquired Identify3D, a company that develops software to encrypt, distribute and trace the flow of digital parts across supply chains. The acquisition of Identify3D is designed to make Materialise’s CO-AM platform a more secure platform for distributed manufacturing.
The Identify3D product suite encrypts, distributes and traces the flow of digital parts to prevent counterfeits and ensure that maliciously or inadvertently modified, substandard or uncertified parts cannot enter the physical supply chain. It also allows designers and manufacturing engineers to couple designs with specific production criteria, such as a designated user, a type of machine or material to control the production process and to meet the original manufacturing specifications.
The Materialise CO-AM software platform gives manufacturers cloud-based access to a full range of software tools that allow them to plan, manage and optimize the 3D printing process. The acquisition of Identify3D allows Materialise to add a security layer to CO-AM, making the platform more robust and secure for manufacturers that are looking to scale up their 3D printing operations as part of a digital and distributed production environment.
“We believe that the factory of the future will not be a single, central location,” said Fried Vancraen, CEO of Materialise. “Instead, future manufacturing, enabled by smart technologies like 3D printing, will take place at multiple digital production sites, distributed around the world, closer to customers. But this will only be possible when companies are sure that their design and production data remains secure.”
“At the center of a digital supply chain is the movement of valuable data from design through manufacturing,” said Joe Inkenbrandt, co-founder and CEO of Identify3D. “Our mission has always been to address the security and integrity of that data.”
