Dec 18, 2015 | By Kira
Since we often spend quite a bit of time ooh-ing and aah-ing over new 3D printing machines, hardware upgrades, and all matter of 3D printed products, it can be easy to forget that behind the flashy hardware, materials, and 3D prints, is powerful software, silently working to analyze, optimize, and report crucial information about the additive manufacturing process—particularly for advanced 3D printing services that need to bring their technologies to scale and meet growing customer demands.
Seeking to increase performance while reducing costs, advanced 3D printing service FATHOM has just acquired proprietary data analytics software from Addimation, Inc, a San Francisco start-up. The software retrieves, analyzes and reports real-time additive manufacturing metrics, providing FATHOM with invaluable manufacturing data about every part they 3D print, and allowing them to streamline and optimize their 3D printing services.
FATHOM, located in Oakland and Seattle, is specialized in providing high quality, high-speed design iteration and prototype fabrication for a wide variety of companies and businesses in need of product development expertise. The company’s services include plastic and metal 3D printing (FDM, PolyJet, SLA, SLS, and DMSL), CNC machining, rapid tooling, 3D printed tooling, injection molding and much more. The FATHOM is also an authorized partner and reseller of Stratasys 3D printing systems, and in 2011, it developed and launched SmartQuote, an extremely useful online platform for quoting and ordering 3D printed parts.
In acquiring Addimation’s data analytics platform for additive manufacturing, they are building on thee existing experience with software development from SmartQuote, yet focusing more on how they can use precise data and metrics to their business’’ advantage.
“For the industry to take a step forward, major advancements in software must be made,” said Rich Stump, Co-Founder and Principal at FATHOM. “Having immediate access to this level of analysis enables data-driven decision-making that will increase performance, reduce costs, and bring these advanced technologies to scale.”
“FATHOM is hard at work developing next-generation product data management (PDM) systems that will allow future engineers to analyze the manufacturing data of every part that is 3D printed,” added Carlo Quiñonez, FATHOM’s Director of Research.
Karl D.D. Willis, Co-Founder of Addmiation, said that the software was initially developed to the solve software challenges of additive manufacturing at scale, and to enable a new level of transparency and understanding of events happening on the production floor. “Our analytics solution helps improve production efficiency by providing visibility into the manufacturing process,” said Willis. “FATHOM has been amazing to work with because they share the same goal of scalability. We’re delighted that FATHOM will be able to adopt our technology and take their production efficiency to new levels.”
With their 3D printing expertise, FATHOM has been involved bringing in several interesting, creative, and wildly diverse 3D printed projects to life, including Pyra, the 3D printed smart oven; the 3D printed BOOMcast speaker, #Cast, a 3D printed plaster made of messages from your loved ones, and even the 3D scanning and printing of Michelangelo sculptures from across the world, just to name a few. With this new level of data analysis and information-rich power, we’ll see just what kinds of optimized 3D printing projects they’ll be able to take on next.
Posted in 3D Printer Company
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