PrintParts Ships Industry’s First SmartParts

PrintParts Inc., a New York City-based additive manufacturing (AM) service and technology provider, has begun shipping the industry’s first SmartParts to select production customers.

Earlier this year, PrintParts announced the development of SmartParts, a new authentication and traceability solution for additively manufactured parts. The integrated solution combines hardware, software and materials to embed a scannable signature within each part. SmartParts introduces a new way to manage AM processes and trace parts throughout additive supply chains. This marks an important step forward for companies looking to use AM for production parts that require full traceability or certified materials, the company says.

“Many of our customers are looking to adopt additive for production, but have legitimate concerns around verifying materials, managing suppliers and how to authenticate manufacturing data,” says Robert Haleluk, PrintParts CEO. “If our industry wants to move further into production applications, we need to introduce technology that solves these problems and provides the security, as well as traceability, that companies expect.”

PrintParts operates more than 50 3D printers, across five additive technologies, to produce production parts on-demand for its customers. The company has a large fleet of Formlabs Fuse 1 systems, which are now being used to supply SmartParts in Nylon PA11 and PA12 materials.

PrintParts has successfully produced SmartParts using various additive technologies and is now taking steps to offer its customers SmartParts as a service. Participating customers will be able to verify PrintParts as the supplier, verify materials used within their parts, and ensure additive parts conform with manufacturing specifications.