Autentica digital marketplace offers additively manufactured automotive parts through blockchain technology
October 25, 2023
Autentica Car Parts, a start-up backed by Innovate UK based in Daresbury, UK, has created a digital marketplace for additively manufacturable car parts. This platform enables OEMs, including car designers and manufacturers, to sell spare parts designs to authorised dealers, distributors, and repair centres.
Using funding from Innovate UK, the UK’s national innovation agency, the platform has successfully undergone testing with 500 customers, including OEMs and car dealers, as well as a global network of 600 AM service providers.
The platform, developed in partnership with the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and cloud technology company Oracle, allows instant access to spare car parts, an improvement on the industry standard of twenty-eight days. This platform also reduces non-production costs (such as storage) by 70% and decreases the carbon footprint of transportation by 40%.
The solution allows for the on-demand Additive Manufacturing of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT)-backed, blockchain-protected, and certified design assets. By utilising NFTs, it certifies that the buyer is acquiring an authentic OEM replacement part that is produced locally using on-demand AM services. NFTs are also intended to help prevent IP infringement and resolve liability issues. They enable OEMs to have control over Additive Manufacturing service providers by streaming G-CODE tokens instead of 3D model files.
Autentica Car Parts will be launched at a special full-day event at Sci-Tech Daresbury on November 1, 2023. The event will include keynote speeches, presentations, roundtable discussions, and live platform demonstrations.
Irma Gilbert, CEO of Autentica Car Parts, stated, “The aftermarket in the automotive spare parts supply chain globally is facing several perennial challenges, such as costly warehouse storage of spare parts; high logistics costs due to time-intensive production and shipping; and low-risk resilience due to cross-border transport which can affect delivery times significantly.”
“Over the last two years, with the backing of Innovate UK and partners including AMRC and Oracle, we have developed a web platform which combines three major digital technologies – Additive Manufacturing, distributed ledger and artificial intelligence – to help revolutionise the aftermarket and automotive spare parts supply chain,” she continued.
“Our Click to Print system is central to our commitment to digital thread management, efficiently overseeing 3D printed parts, ensuring precision and reliability. Furthermore, our innovative use of blockchain-based cloud infrastructure to create a digital inventory is visionary in an era of data security concerns. This infrastructure accelerates the qualification of additive manufacturing processes, materials, and quality control measures, providing numerous opportunities for IP protection, ranging from patents to trade secrets,” Gilbert concluded.
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