“I think we have a responsibility to drive the industry forward.”
Andre Wegner is talking in the centre of his booth, pausing only to ensure those approaching are seen to by colleagues, as he details the motivations behind his company’s latest moves.
The Authentise CEO is midway through his n’teenth Formnext event, but it’s his first since the company expanded outside of the additive manufacturing space and his first since the launch of the Guidelines and Digital Design Warehouse tools just weeks earlier.
Guidelines is the one that the market understood less upon announcement, at least that’s what the traffic of queries since would suggest. It’s a suite of features that has been designed to allow users to formulate ‘if-this-then-that’ rules within its production data inputs to ensure better outcomes. The software suite leans on machine sensor feedback, geometry features and QA measurements to proffer changes in behaviour or parameters as users move through the production workflow.
It is the latest addition to Authentise’s armoury as it bids to combat tribal knowledge.
“A lot of the people that are running additive machines are PhDs. They are not the people that you want to be very prescriptive with,” Wegner tells TCT. “And so, the challenge I saw is a workflow management tool sets up a workflow and it is very prescriptive in the kind of process that you need to follow. ‘Do this now, do that now.’ And I'm like, ‘you're talking to PhDs and you're micromanaging it,’ it doesn't seem right.
“And also, they have a greater knowledge about what the system does and you're not capturing that knowledge. So, I wanted a level higher from something that is pure workflow, prescriptive, something that is softer. Guidelines equals suggestions and it's also an ability to capture the tribal knowledge that goes into making every part successful.”
With Guidelines, users can create a template resource which will trigger the behaviour or parameter change suggestions based on data inputs. After giving the template a name and description, the user can then input a change in conditions – for example, a 30°C change in build plate temperature – and select the printer and material combination, as well as how many parts are being printed within that build. Guidelines will then provide a series of work instruction suggestions where applicable. At the end of the process, the user can then decide to show a warning or error, send to non-conformance or remanufacture if a certain value falls outside of a preordained range.
What Authentise is aiming for is transparent AI – leaning on the power of machine learning, but then allowing skilled humans to understand why suggestions are being made before they are implemented. Through this, Authentise hopes to deliver operator empowerment by providing third-party inputs but affording operators to still have control.
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The platform has been developed with the likes of Photocentric, TWI and ASTM International, whose contributions have been supplemented by an Innovate UK grant. This grant has not only enabled the development of the product’s core functionality but is facilitating the expansion of capabilities to factor in alterations made earlier in the supply chain and the digitisation of standards.
Enhancements within its material management module will see a dashboard from material suppliers developed whereby the certificate of conformance for materials can be uploaded before the materials are shipped. This will allow buyers to assess the quality of material against their specifications in Guidelines before agreeing to purchase.
“The grant’s objective is to trace the process all the way from material creation to usage and finding ways to say, ‘hey, what happens if we change certain behaviours at the material atomisation process to either reduce energy usage at that point or increase the yield?’ What impact would that have in the production process on the additive machine and could you, by doing so, reduce the total energy required to produce a part or increase the yield rate of the final part production?’” Wegner explains. “These rules should be able to flow from reduction all the way into the material creation and back again.”
A significant aspect of the Guidelines potential – and perhaps the one Wegner is most excited about – is pulling in digitised standards. Dr Martin White, the Head of AM Programs - Europe at the ASTM Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence, suggested Guidelines has the potential to ‘evolve how standards can be accessed and embedded in manufacturing processes’ and ‘not only ensure greater compliance but in doing so, allow parts to potentially reduce audit costs too.’ Wegner, meanwhile, notes the time-saving benefits of this capability too, citing a service provider partner that might spend up to six weeks on a request for proposal.
“When a quote comes in, if it’s a metal heavy industry, they will spend six weeks analysing all the standards that are involved,” Wegner says. “And Guidelines, if the standard is digitally encoded, then we can shorten that timeframe to a couple of days, taking [out] a lot of cost. And it’s a PhD that’s sitting there for six weeks. That’s crazy. So, first, the pipeline can take external input like ASTM, which we’re really excited about, but then also, and this is something I firmly believe in, those PhDs won’t accept the black box API. There’s going to be great AI that happens, but most of it is designed in a way to deliver the output and be like ‘change the process.’ But, both from an ISO 9100 perspective and respecting the fact that the operator wants to understand why, you can’t just change the process.”
So, what Authentise is aiming to do, is provide AI-powered insights to skilled operators to implement within their production processes inside the parameters of the part specifications and industry standards they need to adhere to. Through the launch of Digital Design Warehouse in October, the company has also moved to make design collaboration easier, while also rebranding its additive and non-additive applications FlowsAM and Flows, respectively.
The introduction of non-additive applications is another significant step for the now 11-year-old company. That step was made 12 months ago with the acquisition of Elements Technology Platform, a provider of self-serve workflow tools for manufacturing. Offering real-time visibility and traceability to factory operations via ERP software extensions, the company’s Docket platform had been adopted by Carpenter Additive to support its powder production operations prior to the Authentise takeover.
Upon the announcement, Wegner described the integration of Elements as the perfect addition to the Authentise portfolio, citing a mutual aim to provide flexible manufacturing solutions. Increasingly, that’s how Authentise sees itself – no longer wedded to the significantly smaller additive space.
“It’s pure math,” Wegner explains of the decision to expand outside the AM industry. “We rely on people that print more than $1.5 million worth of material and labour a year. How many of them are there? We think that is about 400 to 800 [companies] and 400 to 800 means that we are dealing with a market potential of – I don't know – $100 million. I mean, it’s growing, but it’s not growing fast enough.
“At the moment, if I put any more money into the additive sector, I’m probably more likely to make two or three dollars back. I’m not making the kind of return [I need] because the market is so small. So, if we want to continue to grow, we need to grow outside of additive. I could battle a bit harder and win a few more contracts than we’re winning now, but I would have to invest a lot more to get those contracts. And I’m just not willing to do that because I don’t think the market is going to be able to pay me back.”
What the market has given Authentise, however, is space to develop and make its impact in its first decade of operations. Its FlowAM tools – ones which Wegner passionately describes as enabling the analysis of data and enhancement of AM workflows in this TCT Magazine feature – will remain available to an industry, he hopes, that will in time grow beyond his current calculations. But as the company enters 2023, it is readying for the launch of a non-additive product that will underline its new status as a digital manufacturing company, as opposed to just an additive one.
“Part of me has been excited to work in this industry because it’s a really good fertile learning ground for digital manufacturing as a whole,” Wegner concludes. “We have more data here, we have less legacy in this market, [people that are] more open to change. And it’s kind of lot size one and my firm belief is that manufacturing is going to start evolving to smaller lot sizes to have that flexibility. Now, we have this flexibility built into our system. Hopefully, we can evolve into the broader landscape with that. We have a first cheque that we’ve signed for a non-additive product, which will be launched early [2023], and we’re not just copy and pasting what we have in additive, we’re thinking about completely new products that are based on the same intentions that we have in the additive market.”
