Hexagon made several additions to its ecosystem last week including Directed Energy Deposition (DED) companies Sciaky and Meltio
Amidst the mass of product launches across hardware, software and materials at Formnext last week, Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division unveiled its plans to bring each of those elements together in what it believes will be “the industry’s most flexible and open additive manufacturing ecosystem.”
The software and automation specialist says it will continue to build its open ecosystem “with a shared purpose of high quality” to help users build effective product development and manufacturing workflows. That includes material suppliers like Solvay and Covestro, 3D printer and machine tool vendors such as Stratasys and Renishaw, software providers like Authentic and Elise, and service bureaus.
Paolo Guglielmini, president of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, said: “Far from Industry 4.0 creating a ‘connected' end-to-end supply chain, today many 3D printers and protocols are creating ‘walled kingdoms’ of hardware that are incompatible with certain CAE tools, and vendors are introducing machines with proprietary connectivity, standards and protocols designed not to work with machinery from rivals.
“Just as large manufacturers drove the provision of open factory automation, it’s important we vendors now break down barriers to new manufacturing technologies that offer more flexibility and efficiency. Instead, open data standards should be seen as a growth enabler.”
Through this open collaboration, Hexagon says it wants to help build confidence in “performance, quality, and repeatability” by allowing customers to “integrate new AM technologies with their existing solutions, tools and workflows.”
Mathieu Pérennou, director of strategy and global business development for additive manufacturing at Hexagon, said: “Through continued openness, our ecosystem benefits both sides of the exchange. Our partners can benefit from Hexagon’s technologies and expertise while getting the opportunity to collaborate and solve problems for our extensive global manufacturing customer base, while our customers benefit from that deeper collaboration and ability to build workflows based on truly best-of-breed solutions that are fully tailored to their individual goals.
“We want to continue to expand that ecosystem to industrialise AM and realise its benefits for high performance components, meeting the same quality expectations that our customers have for traditional methods, and we need to make it possible at higher volumes than AM with consistent results at every global plant.”
To support its ambitions, Hexagon welcomed a number of vendors to the ecosystem last week including Sciaky, Meltio, CADS Additive, AMcubator and Additive Center.
Daniel Stadlmayr, technical director, CADS Additive, commented: “Our collaboration with Hexagon is a win for all the industry, helping our customers to achieve the best possible results with accurate build simulation, optimal use of materials and a shared passion for innovation to help our customers solve their most challenging design challenges for metal AM.”
The company also revealed additional developments that advance the application of Directed Energy Deposition (DED) technologies to industrial applications, including collaborations with printer manufacturers DM3D and Gefertec. It also announced a collaboration with 3D Systems to enhance its 3DXpert design software with its HxGN Emendate generative design technology.
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