SIMPLE Additive Manufacturing

Bear Systems is building on its next generation cybersecurity platform to provide a range of SIMPLE (Secure Integrated ML Platform Leveraging Endpoints) solutions for the world’s most pressing needs.  This blog entry is one of a series of introductions showing how Bear can provide a SIMPLE solution for specific vertical challenges.

Additive manufacturing is a truly amazing vertical with incredible advances seemingly coming out daily.  Did you know that there are people actually printing human organs that can be used as transplants?  Additive manufacturing is diverse with more innovative companies providing more solutions than ever before.

This, unfortunately, is also one of the main challenges – diversity or, from a usability perspective, a lack of unified operations.  One of the main uses for additive manufacturing is to aid supply chain efforts and move the production of parts out of central warehouses and out to the edge of delivery systems.  While the concept sounds great, additive manufacturing equipment, think really big 3D printers, are expensive and, in order to fulfill the need for diverse parts, these “move it to the edge” efforts are forced to purchase large numbers of expensive printers.

Adding to this complexity is the reality that the core manufacturers are directly opposed to having parts printed remotely.  There is clear support for this effort as the cost of shipping parts, those parts arriving damaged, and then re-shipping is expensive both in terms of actual cost and time lost for customers.  At the same time, a manufacturer figured out a given design, they have spent years refining and patenting those designs and they do not want to lose that business.

Then you have the problem of security.  With a 3D printer loaded with a bunch of parts designs, what happens if that printer is stolen?  How do you ensure that a malicious insider does not alter a given design in order to create a hidden defect?  If you are trying to print something remotely, how do you ensure the data arrives in a protected manner and is not stolen or altered?

Bear’s SIMPLE Additive Manufacturing *AM) solution can overcome all of these issues through the use of Profiles.  A Profile is a highly secure (blockchain secure for those of you that care) set of software, data, and rules governing each.  In SIMPLE AM, Design Profiles encapsulate the core hardware design to be printed and regulate access to that design across Source Designers, Printing Users, and Authoritative Users.  In this manner, SIMPLE AM will know every time a Design Profile is used and can enforce accounting, at scale, even when those profiles are being used in intermittently connected systems.  Every SIMPLE AM Printer is run as its own Local System and can enforce complex rules, provide machine learning-based protection and control Design Profiles even when disconnected from the outside world.  SIMPLE AM provides sophisticated methods for out of band license enforcement to enable these features on those systems that never connect to the outside.

One of the core features of these Local System Profiles is the ability to determine location and that ability extends beyond GPS.  If a SIMPLE AM Printer is stolen, it will stop working and none of its Design Profiles will be accessible no matter what extraction effort is attempted.  SIMPLE AM leverages deep knowledge of device endpoints, quantum resilient encryption, and a series of blockchain ledgers to ensure Design Profile integrity throughout the lifetime of a given Design.  SIMPLE AM will even provide a comprehensive social network-oriented system that incentivizes manufacturer employees to build better designs through a verification process that ensures design specifications.

There is obviously more, much more, to our SIMPLE Additive Manufacturing solution and, if you are interested, please contact us to learn more!