The challenges of supporting SMEs in adopting AM have a four-fold character:
(a) Materials & process knowledge is required,
(b) Software becomes critical (and expensive)
(c) Automation is a key and,
(d) Collaborations are required.

As such, ACloud holds the vision of offering an inexpensive tool based on a user-friendly platform that will be able to offer the opportunity to SMEs to optimize holistically their production.

The project aims to deliver significant impact, utilizing cloud-based implementations for holistic production optimization. What will be addressed is provision of secure storage of data in cloud, manufacturing optimization software taking into account cost, time and flexibility, streamlining communications between stakeholders of AM technology, and acceleration of product development by expediting collaboration and providing optimization capabilities. The cloud-based AM system will provide portability of data, options for automated decision making, collaboration opportunities and easy/agile manipulation of data. Knowledge extraction from many points (machines / SMEs) will be of crucial importance to the SME and it will help boost their production efficiency.

The PaaS architecture will help eliminate the need for extra software tools, leading to a unified service point.

All partners within the ACloud consortium are leading their regional manufacturing innovation ecosystems, addressing the needs of their local stakeholders. The diverse and multidisciplinary nature of the partnership provides the excellence and complementarity required to successfully address the current and emerging challenges of European manufacturing.