Hexagon Pushes Forward With Open Ecosystem Strategy

Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division has revealed its plans to build a flexible and open additive manufacturing (AM) ecosystem to help overcome complexities in 3D printing processes and support customers in effectively building their product development and manufacturing workflows. 

With several new additions to the ecosystem announced this week alone—Sciaky, Meltio, CADS Additive, AMcubator and Additive Center—and more under way, Hexagon’s suite of AM partners and products is becoming more comprehensive. Plans to continue building an open ecosystem from concept to customer with the shared purpose of quality were revealed at 3D printing industry event Formnext 2021.  

“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,” says Paolo Guglielmini, president of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division.   

Hexagon’s AM ecosystem offers customers a spectrum of solutions as a result of working closely with material suppliers (e.g., Solvay, COVESTRO), printer and machine-tool companies (e.g., Stratasys, Markforged, Renishaw, Additive Industries, Sciaky, GEFERTEC, Meltio), software and platform providers (e.g., Authentise, CADS Additive, Elise), and service bureaus. Through open collaboration, it is helping manufacturers focus on performance, quality and repeatability, while allowing customers to integrate new AM technologies with their existing solutions, tools and workflows. 

Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division has a consultative approach, developing long-term relationships with global manufacturers, as well as disruptive new players. With a community of more than 500,000 users, its product development and manufacturing technologies are used throughout the supply chain. Hexagon also invests 10% of net sales in R&D and holds thousands of active patents.

In additive manufacturing, the company collaborates with research institutes and projects, including the EU MANUELA project, Lift, RMIT University, Purdue University, Materials Innovation Guild (MIG) at the University of Louisville, and more. It is also an active contributor to the development of emerging standards, including ASTM International groups, and joined the 3MF Consortium in November 2021 to contribute to the development of effective interoperability between additive manufacturing software tools. 

“Through continued openness, our ecosystem benefits both sides of the exchange,” says Mathieu Pérennou, director of strategy and global business development for additive manufacturing at  Hexagon. “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.”

For more additive manufacturing resources and information, visit https://iamready.hexagonmi.com.   

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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