Metal PBF printers
Predict porosity, lack of fusion and keyholing from the melt-pool signal and trim inside the envelope before the layer fuses. Metric: builds scrapped and build-failure rate against the baseline.
Meltrixagent.melt_layer
Solutions
Start where the scrap is.
Every additive floor already counts scrapped builds, CT hours, coupon campaigns, idle machine time and failed qualifications. Powdrix lands on one of those numbers, on one machine, with a baseline agreed in writing, and expands when it moves.
Illustrative scenario: PBF-2 · Ti-6Al-4V bracket family, 24-part build, 23 of 24 parts released, one held
By outcome
Six wedges, each with a metric the floor already has
The first paid pilot targets one of these. The metric column is what the pilot would be judged on.
Qualified part families
Segment every CT volume on GPUs, grade against acceptance criteria with a sign-off, and link each defect to its layer. Metric: CT triage time and detection accuracy against the inspector baseline.
Poroscanagent.defect_inspect
New part families and alloys
Simulate thermal field, stress and distortion for candidate recipes before the build and release the winner inside the envelope. Metric: coupon builds and ramp scrap per new part family.
Parttwintwin.parttwin
Long builds
Check the recoater image every layer, track lot, reuse and humidity, and correct dosing before fusion. Metric: recoat-linked build stops.
agent.recoat_powder
Multi-machine floors
Unload, depowder and transfer parts on build complete and schedule machines, ovens, HIP and inspection with cuOpt. Metric: machine idle time between builds and manual handling hours.
ForgebotYieldex
Aerospace and medical floors
Keep an immutable genealogy from recipe to disposition and block shipment when evidence is incomplete. Metric: qualification cost and non-conformance cycle time.
Yieldexagent.quality_conf
Where it pays
Four loops, four metrics
Powdrix is not a dashboard. Each agent closes a loop an additive floor already measures in scrapped builds, failed qualifications, CT hours and idle machine time. The tables show what each loop watches and what it is allowed to move.
Melt-pool instability
Catch the pore before the layer fuses
Melt-pool video, photodiode and thermal streams are fused at the printer edge into a rolling risk score for porosity, lack of fusion and keyholing. When risk crosses the threshold the agent has layers, not hours, to trim power inside the envelope instead of scrapping the build at CT.
- Vision, photodiode and thermal fused at 30 to 240 fps
- Prediction seconds ahead, not review after the fact
- Every precursor, action and CT outcome labelled into the training set
agent.melt_layer SUCCEEDED
| Signal | Watches | Moves |
|---|---|---|
| Melt-pool signature | Watched per layer, per part | Power and speed trim inside the envelope |
| Keyhole and spatter | Classified from video and photodiode | Focus and speed recommendation |
| Lack-of-fusion risk | Scored continuously | Trim, CT priority flag, or hold request |
Recoat and powder
Stop the streak from becoming a scrapped build
A recoat fault at layer 400 ruins a build that finishes a day later. Recoat-and-Powder reads the recoater image every layer, tracks lot, reuse and humidity, and corrects dosing or asks for a hold before the next layer is fused.
- Recoater image and bed uniformity map checked every layer
- Powder lot, sieve and reuse history carried into genealogy
- Short feeds and streaks corrected before fusion
agent.recoat_powder SUCCEEDED
| Signal | Watches | Moves |
|---|---|---|
| Bed uniformity | Recoater camera, every layer | Dosing and recoat speed inside limits |
| Powder quality | Lot, reuse count, humidity | Reuse limit and sieve request |
| Streaks | Detected before fusion | Hold request to the orchestrator |
Inspection
Grade every part, in minutes, with the evidence attached
Spot CT on a sample and hours of manual review cannot keep pace with serial production. Poroscan segments every volume on GPUs, grades against the acceptance criteria with a human sign-off, and links the defect back to the layer and the signal that produced it.
- 2D and 3D CT segmentation served on Triton
- Criteria-aware grading with a named sign-off
- Qualification packet assembled with citations
agent.defect_inspect SUCCEEDED
| Signal | Watches | Moves |
|---|---|---|
| Porosity and cracks | CT volume segmentation | Accept, reject or inspector routing |
| Surface faults | Vision inspection | Rework or reject suggestion |
| Geometry | Metrology deviation | Compensation feedback to Parttwin |
Before the build
Rehearse the build on the twin
Every recipe is simulated for thermal field, residual stress and distortion before release. Candidates that save takt but push distortion or predicted density outside target are discarded automatically, and the winner is stress-tested against rare defect scenarios.
- 10 to 40 candidate recipes per part family
- Ranked on density, geometry, takt and energy
- The chosen recipe is released inside the envelope and logged
twin.parttwin SUCCEEDED
| Signal | Watches | Moves |
|---|---|---|
| Orientation and supports | Thermal and stress simulation | Validated recipe to Prep-and-Parameter |
| Parameters | Melt-pool proxy and density prediction | Envelope-checked recipe to Meltrix |
| Distortion | As-built versus as-designed | Compensation and predicted-defect map to Poroscan |
Segments
Where additive floors start
Aerospace, medical and dental implants, energy and defence, tooling and industrial, and service bureaus, on metal powder-bed fusion, directed energy deposition and polymer SLS, MJF and FDM. Most floors pick one machine and one wedge, prove the number, then expand.
AerospaceBrackets, nozzles, structural parts
Aerospace
Qualified part families where one failed build or failed qualification is expensive. Meltrix and Poroscan on one metal PBF printer first, with the AS9100 evidence packet attached.
Medical and dental implantsTi and CoCr implants
Medical and dental implants
Porosity and surface faults are patient safety. CT grading against acceptance criteria with a named sign-off, genealogy for every implant.
Energy and defencePressure-bearing and reshored parts
Energy and defence
Serial production under qualification and reshoring pressure. Build-failure prediction and fleet scheduling with Yieldex as the floor scales.
Tooling and industrialConformal-cooled tooling, series parts
Tooling and industrial
Cost per part decides the business. Parttwin to cut coupon campaigns and ramp scrap, Forgebot to reclaim idle machine time.
Service bureausMulti-machine, multi-material fleets
Service bureaus
Many customers, many part families, one floor. Yieldex scheduling across machines, ovens and inspection, with per-customer genealogy.
Run timeline · scenario
One scenario run, step by step
Every Powdrix run is an ordered, inspectable sequence. This is run_7c2e4b on PBF-2 · Ti-6Al-4V bracket family, 24-part build. Scenario completes in 10 steps with one approval gate. Twin recipe #14 selected, one lack-of-fusion precursor at layer 1,872 cleared by a bounded power trim, CT triage in 11 minutes, 23 of 24 parts released with full genealogy and one held for review.
run_7c2e4b
PBF-2 · Ti-6Al-4V bracket family, 24-part build
illustrative scenario
SUCCEEDED
-
01
ingest.job
SUCCEEDED
0.7 s
Floor Orchestrator · Pulled the job from AM MES: 24 Ti-6Al-4V brackets, 60 µm layers, 3,140 layers, density target 99.7%, geometry tolerance ±0.10 mm, AS9100 evidence packet required. Locked the OEM-approved parameter envelope for PBF-2.
-
02
twin.simulate
SUCCEEDED
6 m 12 s
Part Twin · Simulated 40 candidate orientation, support and parameter recipes for thermal field, residual stress and distortion, ranked on predicted density, geometry deviation, takt and energy.
-
03
prep.release
SUCCEEDED
48 s
Prep-and-Parameter · Recipe #14 released: 32° orientation, lattice supports on two faces, laser power and speed inside the qualified envelope. Predicted distortion 0.06 mm, predicted density 99.8%.
-
04
recoat.check
SUCCEEDED
continuous
Recoat-and-Powder · Recoater image checked every layer. Powder lot L-2291 on its third reuse, humidity in window. One short-feed at layer 412 corrected with a dosing increase before the next layer fused.
-
05
melt.stabilise
SUCCEEDED
continuous
Melt-and-Layer · Melt-pool, photodiode and thermal streams fused at 120 fps. Lack-of-fusion risk rose to 0.61 on part 17 at layer 1,872 and was cleared by a 3% power trim inside the envelope within four layers.
-
06
thermal.compensate
SUCCEEDED
2 m 04 s
Thermal-and-Distortion · Interlayer temperature on the tall brackets ran 14 °C above the twin's prediction from layer 2,300. A 1.5 s interlayer dwell held the thermal field inside the predicted band through the top section.
-
07
approve.human
APPROVAL
4 m 30 s
Floor Orchestrator · Melt-and-Layer proposed a hatch-spacing change on part 17 beyond the qualified envelope. Held for the AM process engineer, who declined it and chose to flag part 17 for CT priority instead. Decision logged.
-
08
handle.depowder
SUCCEEDED
38 m
Robot-and-Handling · Plate unloaded by the handling cell on build complete, depowdered, and parts transferred to stress relief. Powder returned to the sieve with lot L-2291 reuse count incremented in genealogy.
-
09
inspect.ct
SUCCEEDED
11 m
Defect-and-Inspect · 24 CT volumes segmented for pores, cracks and lack of fusion in 11 minutes. 23 parts graded accept against the acceptance criteria. Part 17 shows a 180 µm indication at layer 1,870 and is routed to the inspector for disposition.
-
10
release.qualify
SUCCEEDED
1 m 20 s
Quality-and-Conformance · 23 parts released with the full genealogy: recipe, layer tags, melt-pool events, thermal trace, approvals, post-processing cycles and CT result. Part 17 held with a non-conformance opened. Evidence packet assembled for sign-off.
Who it is for
Built for the people who run the floor
We have no customer quotes to show yet and will not invent any. These are the three roles on an additive floor we build for, and the problems they bring to the first meeting.
Owns build throughput, quality, build-failure and yield, qualification and cost per part.
What this person is dealing with today
- Fixed parameters and manual build prep that cap density, geometry and yield
- Scrapped multi-hour or multi-day builds and high energy eroding cost per part
- A severe, scarce AM process-engineer shortage that caps fleet scale-up
Owns build prep, parameters, in-situ interpretation, thermal and distortion, and post-processing recipes.
What this person is dealing with today
- Melt-pool instability, porosity, lack of fusion and spatter driving scrapped builds
- Recoat streaks and powder-quality faults ruining long builds
- Terabytes of in-situ data that nobody has time to read
Owns part quality to AS9100, ISO 13485 and ASTM and ISO AM standards, defect conformance and build genealogy.
What this person is dealing with today
- Failed qualifications and evidence assembled by hand
- Hidden pores and lack of fusion that pass spot CT and fail in the field
- Build prep, in-situ, post-processing and inspection siloed and reactive across the fleet
Autonomy
Four levels, set per agent and per machine
A qualified floor does not go from manual to unattended in one step. Powdrix makes the level explicit, auditable and reversible at any time, and human approval for anything that affects qualification stays mandatory until validation exists. The first release runs shadow mode, then assist mode, then graduated autonomy.
| Level | What the agent does | What the human does | Where it sits in a pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 · Advisory | Predicts and recommends, with citations; nothing is written | Enters every change manually | Shadow mode on one machine, first weeks of a pilot |
| L2 · Supervised | Proposes a parameter, thermal or inspection move; it executes on approval | Approves each move in the review console | Assist mode once accuracy is measured against CT |
| L3 · Bounded | Writes inside the OEM-approved parameter envelope and per-tag limits | Approves anything that leaves the envelope or affects qualification | Graduated autonomy on low-risk loops, if the floor is satisfied |
| L4 · Unattended | Runs the envelope without prompting | Sets the envelope; reviews the shift record | Planned; only after validation on the part family |
Pricing
Priced per machine, per floor, per group
Land on one printer with a measured baseline. Expand by machine, module, floor and autonomy level. Outcome components are available on build failure, yield, qualification and energy. Annual prepay carries a 15 to 20% discount.
In-situ, parameter-control or inspection AI for one printer. For manufacturers validating ROI on the wedge.
- One printer or inspection cell, one agent module
- Printer-edge Jetson node included
- Machine, camera and CT reads, bounded writes inside the envelope
- Run log, audit trail, build genealogy
- Business-hours support
The whole loop: prep and parameter, melt and layer, recoat and powder, thermal and distortion, defect, post-process, yield and takt, robotic handling and the twin.
- All agents on every machine on the floor
- Poroscan on every inspection cell
- Yieldex scheduling, genealogy and conformance
- Forgebot handling cells
- Parttwin recipe optimisation before every build
- 24/7 support, quarterly model review
Multi-site AM manufacturers and bureaus standardising on Powdrix, with custom alloy, polymer and qualification models.
- Multi-site floor-edge fleet
- Custom alloy, polymer and qualification models
- On-prem GPU inference option
- Group autonomy policy and approval chains
- SLAs, SSO and RBAC, dedicated engineer
- Validated model change control and evidence packs
FAQ
Straight answers
The questions operations directors, process engineers and certification engineers ask in the first meeting.
Only inside the OEM-approved parameter envelope, only on an explicit allow-list with per-tag limits, and only at the autonomy level your floor has set. Level 1 is advisory: Powdrix predicts and recommends and a human enters everything. Design partners start there, in shadow mode. Anything that leaves the envelope or affects qualification always waits for a named approver.
Control returns to the printer's own controller and the standing recipe. Powdrix is a supervisory layer on top of the machine controls, monitoring systems and MES you already run, never a replacement for them, so an outage degrades the floor to its current way of running, not to a stop.
Advisory recommendations start from the twin's physics and the part spec in the first weeks. Defect and build-failure prediction improve as layers, CT results and engineer corrections accumulate per part family. The first models are trained on existing in-situ camera data; synthetic rare-defect scenarios augment them only after validation against real CT.
Only if you choose cloud training. Parameter sets, geometry, defect libraries and process memory are isolated per tenant and never used to train another customer's models. Cross-customer learning is federated and IP-isolated and waits on written data agreements. A fully on-prem deployment is available for sensitive producers.
It is designed not to. Validated parameters never change without the sign-off your quality system requires, model changes go through change control, and every action carries model version, data lineage, approval status and qualification impact in the audit log. Powdrix does not claim AS9100 or ISO 13485 certification; assurance packages are planned for the 6 to 12 month release.
You are, as with any process change, which is why every write is policy-checked, bounded, logged and reversible, and why anything that affects qualification waits for a named approver. The audit log records the request, the reasoning, the limits applied and the human decision.
Get started
Name the machine that costs you the most
Start with one printer or one inspection cell and one measurable baseline. A paid pilot on melt-pool and build-failure prediction, CT porosity triage or pre-build recipe optimisation shows the number before you commit further.