The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) (Ann Arbor, MI) and Moog Inc. (East Aurora, NY) have signed a contract to perform co-funded work in support of applying Moog’s VeriPart solution, adapting blockchain technology for additive manufacturing.
This agreement will allow Moog’s VeriPart solution to be demonstrated via Microsoft Azure Blockchain. NCMS will provide project and contract management while leveraging this project to enhance Department of Defense’s (DoD) knowledge of blockchain technology. The project will allow DoD to evaluate blockchain adaptability to additive manufacturing and digital data supply chain processes for mission critical and obsolete parts in a secure environment. The full collaborating team is comprised of NCMS, Moog Inc., Microsoft, Guardtime Federal, Identify3D and Siemens.
VeriPart is a distributed, blockchain-based transaction system that establishes a secure and traceable Smart Digital Supply Chain providing per-part provenance (pedigree) across a distribution network. Each transaction of record is recorded on a shared, distributed ledger where authorized parties can query transaction for authorization and traceability of provenance back to source requirements.
With the introduction of distributed manufacturing, the path from design engineering to manufacturing now includes a digital distribution phase. All digital exchanges must be protected from threats along the distribution channel. Threats for each transaction are evaluated and mitigations put in place as necessary based on the established level of trust among members on a given network along the distribution path. VeriPart establishes trust through blockchain’s immutable distributed ledger.
“Creating a point of use, time of need smart digital supply chain will reduce warfighter logistics tails and empower maintenance and logistics organizations to improve readiness and lethality; VeriPart will give the DoD the tools to maintain a competitive edge in Industry 4.0,” said James Regenor, business unit director for Transformative Technologies at Moog.
The objective of this project is to test and affirm the benefits of VeriPart, 3D print an additively manufactured part, and authenticate and have traceability of the part in a cyber-secure Blockchain-enabled ecosystem. The project will support Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Keyport, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), USMC, NIST, NAVAIR, OSD-MPP/CIO, JSIG and the Rapid Tech Transition Office.
The result of the collaboration will show the potential for future value creation moving parts from the digital world to the physical world using a secure distributed platform and additive manufacturing technologies.
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