InfraTrac & Aerosint: another approach to secure 3D printing

Image via aerosint - Spectromètre NIRONE à moteurs spectraux testant un échantillon étiqueté ULTEM, avec un penny pour l'échelle.

Aerosint is the young dynamic Belgian 3D printing specialist that aims to revolutionize multi-material 3D Printing. With its powder bed printing with multiple materials, Aerosint is unveiling a new approach to security in additive manufacturing.

Image via aerosint – Spectral Engines NIRONE spectrometer testing an ULTEM tagged sample, with a penny for scale

Until now, security in additive manufacturing has most of the time, only been tackled under the prism of intellectual property, blockchain or software.  The collaboration between InfraTrac, a company that specializes in chemical security for additive manufacturing, printing taggant right into the part, with instant field detection and Aerosint shows a different approach of the topic.

Aerosint and InfraTrac’s approach to security

The general concern of 3D Printing regarding security remains the same. The maturity of the technology comes with its array of issues that includes alterations in manufacturing, outsourcing, and inventory management.

With the increasingly launch of distributed manufacturing networks, spare parts can be generated in various geographical areas, at the same time or not.

Speaking of our two collaborators, it should be noted that InfraTrac’s taggant approach couldn’t be processed in powder bed AM processes due to the process single material coating limitations. Aerosint brings a solution to this issue.

How? “By producing simple demonstrator parts from polymer and metal that include “fingerprinting” sites based on a powder formulation developed by InfraTrac, which will then test and verify the parts. This collaboration forms the basis for simple, robust, and scalable part authentication for industries in which strict quality control is critical.”

Same advantages with a different approach

Using a SaaS solution, the main advantage of having a secured 3D Printing process is to avoid the fabrication of counterfeits. This advantage is also found in the way Aerosint & InfraTrac secure 3D Printing.

In laser powder bed fusion processes such as SLS and SLM, systems usually spread powder in thin layers through rollers or doctor blades, and do not often offer the flexibility to place multiple powders at specific locations within a build layer. According to Aerosint, “true multi-material LPBF requires a system for precise placement of two or more powdered materials within one layer. This “voxel-level control” forms the basis for the selective powder deposition system that Aerosint is developing. Metal or polymer components built using an SLS/SLM system equipped with Aerosint’s recoater can contain InfraTrac-traceable materials embedded at specific sites within the part. As these taggant materials can be made visually identical to the part’s bulk material, counterfeiting is virtually impossible and part sourcing authenticity can be ensured to the highest degree of confidence.”

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