Markforged Launches AI-based Additive Platform

Markforged has announced a new 3D printing platform, The Digital Forge. According to the company, the cloud-based platform brings all of Markforged’s products together in one offering in order to make production-grade parts on demand. Using machine learning technology, it “creates parts cheaper, faster, and often with better properties than traditional manufacturing methods while continually getting smarter with each part it prints,” the company says. 

“We started Markforged with a cloud-first, software-first approach that was designed for the modern world, and now we are applying that approach to accomplish things people thought were still decades away from coming to market,” said Greg Mark, Chairman of Markforged. “Through the Digital Forge, manufacturers can use our powerful software to easily fabricate strong, accurate, and durable metal and composite parts for orders of magnitude cheaper than they’ve traditionally been made — on demand and directly at the point of need.”

According to the company, The Digital Forge uses fleet federated learning (AI/ML + data) to make the platform smarter and parts better with each print. That means the platform is constantly learning from data being generated across the Markforged fleet of more than 12,000 printers, which can then be used to instantly course correct print jobs. Because the platform is cloud-based, it can be constantly updated and enhanced so that customers are always able to leverage new advancements.

The Digital Forge can print continuous carbon fiber-reinforced parts and metal from a single browser tab. This allows manufacturers to print production-grade, strong parts at the point-of-need to respond to supply chain disruption and take advantage of market opportunity in an agile way, the company says.

“Siemens Energy prides itself on delivering not only the world’s most advanced technology in the energy market, but also utilizing the best technologies to achieve that,” said Pontus Johansson of Siemens Energy. “With the Markforged Digital Forge, the ability to create exceptional parts and put them to operational use is incredible. Our collaboration with Markforged enables us to continuously grow a better value chain capability. Additive manufacturing is an area where we are, and intend to stay at, the absolute forefront.”