When Auto Additive was established in 2024, an important part of its mission was to work alongside partners who could help build the company’s manufacturing strategy for 3D-printed parts.
The company teamed up with Assembrix, a software technology company based in Israel.
Lior Polak, CEO and co-founder of Assembrix, is an advisory council member of Auto Additive and assists the organization in leveraging 3D-printed parts for the collision industry. Polak has more than 10 years of experience in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry, working with leading players in the market.
Polak said there are immense opportunities for 3D printing in the collision repair industry.
“For years, it has been a huge challenge to optimize the inventory so that you can serve customers on time without wasting resources on storing unused spare parts,” he noted. “While 3D printing is becoming a much more common and cost-effective technology, this is a game changer for the industry.”
Auto Additive uses Assembrix’s platform for its secure distributed manufacturing operation.
Assembrix builds a network of printers around the world connected to the company they work with and enables them to 3D-print spare parts on demand.
Polak said the company has developed the most advanced software platform in the market, enabling OEMs to remote 3D print spare parts while securing the intellectual property (IP) and fully monitor the printing process.
The platform, already used by aerospace and defense customers, is entering the automotive market.
“Auto Additive is now able to get full control over 3D printers across the globe and produce collision spare parts whenever and wherever needed with its full control,” said Polak. “This means creating a significant cost reduction by eliminating the need for massive physical inventory and making and moving physical parts."
Polak said Assembrix's platform has seamless integration into worldwide 3D printer vendors, such as EOS, SLM and HP, providing Auto Additive the advantage and flexibility to produce multiple parts from various materials.
Polak explained how blockchain is integrated with the 3D printing software.
“Blockchain technology provides an immutable ledger, permission-based actions and encryption,” he said. “When translating those features into real-life benefits, Auto Additive can decide who can 3D print a part, where and how many while ensuring that there is no data leakage and that the ‘secret recipe’ of how to print a part is fully secured.”
Additionally, he said the system records everything without any way to change the record, so the entire 3D printing process is monitored, stored and kept within a secured database.
“The future, which is already here and now, is printing spare parts inside or next to body shops,” said Polak. “This streamlines the supply process, decreases the dependency of multiple suppliers, reduces the cost and allow body shops to get parts only when they need them in a timely manner.”
He foresees Auto Additive managing the 3D printing process for OEMs.
“That means that car manufacturers permit Auto Additive to manage their remote 3D-printing activities for collision spare parts, which is a win-win model for the entire industry,” he emphasized. “It will optimize the supply and consequently, also the prices and margins for the OEMs and enable shops to have a much better and optimized supply with happier customers.”
Stacey Phillips Ronak