Managing additive manufacturing data

Additive manufacturing (AM) needs tools to manage data to ensure quality, repeatability, traceability, and reliability, especially in the heavily regulated aviation and medical industries.

Throughput Consulting’s Bluestreak | Bright AM™ management execution system (MES)/quality management system (QMS) solution manages AM production and can interface with existing systems to share data. The Bluestreak software portfolio is dedicated to manufacturing process control, work order management, QA/QC, and industry specification adherence.

“Our MES/QMS solution is a unified system contained within an all-encompassing MS SQL Server database that is equipped to manage data and give real-time visibility into the production environment, and it eliminates confusing paper trails and disparate silos of redundant data,” says Todd Wenzel, President and CTO, Throughput Consulting Inc.

The software supports:

• Unique serialization for build traceability throughout a product’s life cycle, even if multiple parts with different serial numbers are printed on the same build plate.
• Advanced dispositioning to manage nonconformances, scrap disposition, and the ability to allow parts to go down different processing paths without breaking the audit trail.

Ron Beltz, Director of Strategic Accounts, says AM “machines have gotten faster and more predictable; materials have gotten better; design and prototype software solutions have advanced. But one of the remaining hurdles – and one that individual companies are often working out for themselves – is standardization. How do you ensure predictable parts in a process that has so many parameters?”

For more info: https://www.bright-am.com