Autentica has validated a secure digital thread platform for distributed additive manufacturing with NCC, part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, in a project aimed at reducing one of the most persistent barriers to wider industrial 3D printing uptake: safe handling of design data outside a single controlled site.
The system is intended to connect design files, machine instructions, and production records into a traceable workflow for decentralised manufacturing. Rather than moving full design files between partners in the conventional way, the platform uses encrypted file streaming and tamper-evident records to keep tighter control over who can access production data, what was sent, and how a part was produced.
That matters because additive manufacturing is moving beyond prototyping and into spare parts, low-volume production, and distributed service models, where intellectual property protection and production traceability become much harder to guarantee. A UK government case study published last year said 3D printing adoption among SMEs remains relatively low and continues to lag parts of Europe and the US, while the Ministry of Defence’s advanced manufacturing strategy has already identified the digital thread as a requirement for secure part manufacture across dispersed networks.
Autentica’s chief technology officer, Uros Kostelac, said the platform can “maintain a verifiable record of every stage of production”. NCC’s role was to test that claim inside realistic additive workflows, including file transmission, instruction traceability, and design asset protection, rather than in a software-only environment.
The immediate target is SME manufacturers, which often have the strongest incentive to use distributed additive manufacturing but the least appetite for building enterprise-scale digital infrastructure around it. If further pilots follow, the bigger opportunity will be to turn secure digital inventory and qualified remote production into something smaller manufacturers can actually deploy, rather than another capability reserved for larger organisations with the budget to stitch together their own systems.
