Additive manufacturing software company, DNA.am has recently acquired GROW Software, a UK-based secure file transfer company. Rebranded as Grow.am, the company will continue to digitalise end-to-end security for highly regulated sectors.
DNA.am and Valuechain Group CEO Tom Dawes explained “COVID-19 has exposed the fragility and significant limitations of traditional manufacturing supply chains for critical items such as PPE and medical equipment. For many years, AM technology has demonstrated sufficient maturity to address these challenges through mass-customisation and rapid response agility, whilst reducing overall risks and costs. However, major inhibitors to AM adoption have been due to IP protection concerns, quality assurance and material traceability.”
Indeed, in a recent article, Professor Timothy W. Simpson, from Penn State University explained that “no open-source 3D printed PPE has received FDA or NIOSH approval for protecting healthcare workers” because of several hurdles including sharing information securely, a shortage of suppliers, and accreditation of processes.
This need for improved traceability and secure collaboration in AM supply chains has been taken into account in GROW’s solution. Remember our conversation with ex-GROW Aslan Shirazian who highlighted in our Opinion of the Week series, the three pillars on which are based the challenges that GROW aims to overcome: security, consistency and insights. Security consists in protecting the IP of the design. Consistency comes into play when the operator can have a total control of the part’s manufacturing and “insights” refer to the validation of the part.
Experienced AM technology entrepreneur, and Founder of Grow.am, Siavash Mahdavi stated “I am proud of the team for working so hard in such turbulent times and in being able to complete this transaction whilst working remotely. It is a true testament to our belief in the synergies that the combined solution will bring to the AM industry. We are delighted to join the DNA.am family. The Grow.am suite of products are a perfect fit for the already comprehensive offering that DNA.am is supplying to the market and we look forward to an exciting future.”
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