Stratasys GrabCAD to Characteristic 3D Printing Apps from Riven and 3D Techniques’ Oqton – 3DPrint.com

Up till just lately, the 2 closest rivals within the 3D printing world have been Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS) and 3D Techniques (NYSE: DDD), as the 2 largest publicly traded stalwarts the trade has to supply. Is it potential that these two companies, which compete neck-and-neck on a number of fronts, may make peace, at the very least for a single partnership? Evidently approach, for Stratasys has introduced that its GrabCAD Software program Associate Program will embrace two new companions, Riven and Oqton.

Whereas Riven is a singular developer of high quality management software program based mostly in Berkeley, Calif., Oqton is a producing execution system (MES) developer just lately acquired by 3D Techniques. By means of the GrabCAD Software program Associate Program, corporations like these are in a position to leverage the GrabCAD software program improvement equipment (SDK) to create third-party functions for GrabCAD, Stratasys’s print preparation software and 3D modeling neighborhood.

A screenshot of Oqton’s software program. Picture courtesy of 3D Techniques.

“New GrabCAD Software program companions give us the power to develop the numbers of applied sciences out there by means of the GrabCAD AM Platform and permits us to help our clients’ targets by making a related ecosystem that helps additive manufacturing at scale,” mentioned Paul Giaconia, Vice President of Software program Merchandise for Stratasys. “We welcome these two new companions and sit up for persevering with to develop this program and supporting our clients’ Business 4.0 initiatives.”

Oqton’s machine-agnostic, cloud software program platform makes use of synthetic intelligence to automate repetitive duties and the 3D printing workflow. This contains order monitoring, scheduling, mannequin latticing, construct prep, and slicing. As part of the software, customers can create stay dashboards and automatic experiences. All of that is mandatory to creating additive manufacturing (AM) extra streamlined whereas additionally integrating it into present manufacturing environments.

“Our answer empowers people and machines to work collectively seamlessly – which is the important thing distinction between manufacturing success and manufacturing failure,” mentioned Benjamin Schrauwen, CEO at Oqton. “We’ve made it very straightforward to mix and visualize knowledge from completely different machines, from completely different producers, and throughout completely different applied sciences, and by partnering with Stratasys we will help our shared clients obtain automated manufacturing success.”

Picture courtesy of Riven.

Riven’s answer also needs to enhance the mixing of AM into mainstream manufacturing, because it serves to enhance the high quality of 3D printed fashions. With a 3D scanner, customers can scan elements and match them towards CAD fashions to examine for points. Its Warp-Tailored-Mannequin (WAM) software will increase the accuracy of elements by two to 10 occasions, in line with the corporate, for fused deposition modeling (FDM), powder mattress fusion (PBF) and stereolithography (SLA) applied sciences.

James Web page, founder and CTO of Riven, commented, “Along with Stratasys we acknowledge how crucial it’s that manufacturing elements are delivered rapidly and to spec to ensure that additive to achieve its full potential. Riven’s next-generation predictive, machine studying expertise, permits clients to appreciate increased half high quality and lowered time to manufacturing deliveries.”

Now, each corporations can be creating instruments that combine with GrabCAD, which means that the numerous corporations utilizing Stratasys’s 3D printers will have the ability to entry these applied sciences extra simply. As a result of GrabCAD helps native CAD information, the complete design to print workflow is being made extra streamlined by Stratasys total.

A screenshot of GrabCAD Print. Picture courtesy of Stratasys.

As 3D Techniques CEO Jeff Graves instructed us in a current interview, Oqton represents a gap up for the corporate, a development which is happening all through the trade. For Stratasys, each GrabCAD and its SLA/digital mild processing subsidiary Origin are open. So, we’re seeing a little bit of a guard being lowered on the elements of each corporations in order that the trade as a complete progresses ahead.

There’s an enormous quantity of exercise in AM from such giants as BASF and Siemens. There are additionally newcomers, equivalent to Desktop Metallic, that would pose a risk. It’s in all probability not within the playing cards anytime quickly however it could be attention-grabbing to see a 3D Techniques and Stratasys merger. Possibly then they’d have the ability to put up a stronger battle towards the opposite competitors. Maybe we’ll think about it extra as a part of our Dream Mergers and Acquisitions sequence.