Every Powdrix agent owns a stage of the additive floor, a declared tool set, the signals it watches and the parameters it is allowed to move inside the qualified envelope. Five of them ship as named products. The orchestrator plans, arbitrates and routes approvals; none of them acts outside the policy engine, and none of them can leave the envelope without a human.
Illustrative scenario: PBF-2 · Ti-6Al-4V bracket family, 24-part build, 23 of 24 parts released, one held
Each agent owns a stage of the additive floor, a bounded tool set and a metric the floor already measures. They negotiate for shared machines and cells through the orchestrator, never directly. Five of them ship as named products.
Build preparation, orientation, supports, nesting, process parameters
Proposes orientation, support, nesting and process-parameter recipes (laser power, speed, hatch, layer) for a build, scores them against density, geometry and takt targets with the part twin, and releases the winning recipe to the printer only inside the OEM-approved parameter envelope and after sign-off.
In-situ melt-pool, layer and energy control
Fuses coaxial and off-axis melt-pool video, layer and recoater images, photodiode and thermal streams at high frame rate, classifies and predicts porosity, lack of fusion, keyholing, spatter and recoat faults seconds ahead, and closes into bounded, operator-graduated laser and energy control to hold the pool stable.
Recoating, powder-bed uniformity, powder quality and reuse
Watches recoater images and bed uniformity every layer, detects streaks, short feeds and spreadability faults before the next layer is fused, tracks powder lot, reuse count and quality, and recommends or applies bounded recoat and dosing corrections.
Thermal fields, residual stress, distortion
Tracks the thermal history of the build from in-situ thermal streams against the twin's prediction, estimates residual stress and distortion as the part grows, and recommends thermal compensation, scan-strategy or dwell changes before geometry leaves tolerance.
CT, vision and metrology inspection, grading, qualification evidence
Triages CT volumes for pores, cracks and lack of fusion with GPU 2D and 3D segmentation, fuses surface vision and metrology deviation, grades each part against the alloy and part acceptance criteria with a human sign-off checkpoint, and links every defect back to the in-situ signal and the recipe that produced it.
Stress relief, heat treatment, HIP, support removal
Holds stress-relief, heat-treatment and HIP recipes against the part's as-built state and the qualification spec, sequences support removal, and records each thermal cycle into the part genealogy so post-processing stops being the blind, reactive end of the floor.
Yield, build-failure risk, energy, fleet scheduling
Ingests build health, inspection results, recipes and cell state from the whole floor, predicts build-failure and qualification risk per job, and schedules machines, ovens, HIP, inspection cells and robots for yield, takt and energy with cuOpt, re-optimising after a delay or a quality hold.
Build-plate, powder, part handling and depowdering
Drives Isaac and Jetson robot cells that load and unload build plates, handle and sieve reactive powder, depowder parts and move them through heat treatment, HIP and support removal, with motion planned and checked in simulation and coordinated with live printer and oven state.
Right-first-time, non-conformance, build genealogy, qualification traceability
Maintains the immutable build genealogy from recipe to layer to inspection to disposition, runs non-conformance workflows, and blocks shipment when genealogy or defect evidence is incomplete, so every qualified part carries a record a certification engineer can audit.
Parameter sets, specs, AM standards, procedures, operator Q&A
Answers process and qualification questions from parameter sets, build and qualification specs, AM standards and quality procedures, with every answer cited to its source and scoped to the tenant, so engineers get grounded reasoning rather than a chat window.
As-built part simulation and recipe optimisation before the build
Simulates the build for candidate orientation, support, nesting and parameter recipes: thermal fields, a melt-pool proxy, residual stress and distortion. Auto-optimises against density, geometry, takt and energy targets, stress-tests the winner against rare defect and distortion scenarios, and hands the validated recipe to Meltrix.
Planning, arbitration, human approval
Plans the build job, routes events to the right agent, arbitrates between agents competing for the same machine or cell, enforces the autonomy level and the OEM parameter envelope, and sends any qualification-impacting action to a named approver.
No agent moves a parameter it has not declared. The metric column is what a pilot on that agent would measure against the floor's baseline.
Proposes orientation, support, nesting and process-parameter recipes (laser power, speed, hatch, layer) for a build, scores them against density, geometry and takt targets with the part twin, and releases the winning recipe to the printer only inside the OEM-approved parameter envelope and after sign-off.
Part of the platform, included in the Floor tier.
| Watches | Part geometry, alloy or polymer lot, machine state, approved parameter envelope, twin predictions |
|---|---|
| Moves | Orientation, supports, nesting and parameter recipe, released to the printer on approval |
| Metric | First metric on a pilot: first-time-right builds and coupon campaigns avoided |
Fuses coaxial and off-axis melt-pool video, layer and recoater images, photodiode and thermal streams at high frame rate, classifies and predicts porosity, lack of fusion, keyholing, spatter and recoat faults seconds ahead, and closes into bounded, operator-graduated laser and energy control to hold the pool stable.
Shipped as Meltrix.
| Watches | Melt-pool video, layer and recoater images, photodiode and thermal streams, layer number |
|---|---|
| Moves | Laser power, speed and focus inside the approved envelope; alerts and layer tags |
| Metric | First metric: defect prediction accuracy against CT, then scrapped builds avoided |
Watches recoater images and bed uniformity every layer, detects streaks, short feeds and spreadability faults before the next layer is fused, tracks powder lot, reuse count and quality, and recommends or applies bounded recoat and dosing corrections.
Part of the platform, included in the Floor tier.
| Watches | Recoater camera, bed uniformity map, powder lot, sieve and reuse history, humidity |
|---|---|
| Moves | Recoat speed and dosing inside limits; hold requests to the orchestrator |
| Metric | First metric: recoat-linked build stops and scrapped layers |
Tracks the thermal history of the build from in-situ thermal streams against the twin's prediction, estimates residual stress and distortion as the part grows, and recommends thermal compensation, scan-strategy or dwell changes before geometry leaves tolerance.
Part of the platform, included in the Floor tier.
| Watches | Thermal camera and pyrometer streams, interlayer time, plate temperature, twin thermal prediction |
|---|---|
| Moves | Interlayer dwell, scan-strategy order, compensation recommendations to Prep-and-Parameter |
| Metric | First metric: geometry deviation at metrology against baseline |
Triages CT volumes for pores, cracks and lack of fusion with GPU 2D and 3D segmentation, fuses surface vision and metrology deviation, grades each part against the alloy and part acceptance criteria with a human sign-off checkpoint, and links every defect back to the in-situ signal and the recipe that produced it.
Shipped as Poroscan.
| Watches | CT volumes, surface images, metrology scans, acceptance criteria, Meltrix build-health stream |
|---|---|
| Moves | Nothing on the printer. Accept, reject and rework suggestions, inspection routing, scan priority |
| Metric | First metric: CT triage time and detection accuracy against the inspector baseline |
Holds stress-relief, heat-treatment and HIP recipes against the part's as-built state and the qualification spec, sequences support removal, and records each thermal cycle into the part genealogy so post-processing stops being the blind, reactive end of the floor.
Part of the platform, included in the Floor tier.
| Watches | Oven and HIP cycle data, part and alloy spec, as-built state from Meltrix and Parttwin |
|---|---|
| Moves | Oven and HIP recipe parameters inside the qualified window; support-removal sequence |
| Metric | First metric: post-processing non-conformances and cycle time |
Ingests build health, inspection results, recipes and cell state from the whole floor, predicts build-failure and qualification risk per job, and schedules machines, ovens, HIP, inspection cells and robots for yield, takt and energy with cuOpt, re-optimising after a delay or a quality hold.
Shipped as Yieldex.
| Watches | Fleet state, build-health stream, inspection outcomes, order queue, oven and HIP queues, energy windows |
|---|---|
| Moves | Schedule, machine assignment, inspection and post-processing sequence |
| Metric | Measured as build-failure rate, machine utilisation and energy per part against baseline |
Drives Isaac and Jetson robot cells that load and unload build plates, handle and sieve reactive powder, depowder parts and move them through heat treatment, HIP and support removal, with motion planned and checked in simulation and coordinated with live printer and oven state.
Shipped as Forgebot.
| Watches | Build-complete signals, plate and part pose, powder container state, oven availability, safety zones |
|---|---|
| Moves | Plate load and unload, depowdering, part transfer, powder handling |
| Metric | Measured as machine idle time between builds and manual handling hours removed |
Maintains the immutable build genealogy from recipe to layer to inspection to disposition, runs non-conformance workflows, and blocks shipment when genealogy or defect evidence is incomplete, so every qualified part carries a record a certification engineer can audit.
Part of the platform, included in the Floor tier.
| Watches | Every recipe release, layer tag, approval, inspection result and post-processing cycle on the build |
|---|---|
| Moves | Release, hold and non-conformance decisions; shipment block when evidence is incomplete |
| Metric | Measured as genealogy completeness and non-conformance cycle time |
Answers process and qualification questions from parameter sets, build and qualification specs, AM standards and quality procedures, with every answer cited to its source and scoped to the tenant, so engineers get grounded reasoning rather than a chat window.
Part of the platform, included in the Floor tier.
| Watches | Parameter sets, AS9100, ISO 13485, ASTM F42 and ISO 52900 documents, non-conformance history |
|---|---|
| Moves | Nothing. It informs operators and the other agents and cites what it used |
| Metric | Measured as citation coverage on every answer |
Simulates the build for candidate orientation, support, nesting and parameter recipes: thermal fields, a melt-pool proxy, residual stress and distortion. Auto-optimises against density, geometry, takt and energy targets, stress-tests the winner against rare defect and distortion scenarios, and hands the validated recipe to Meltrix.
Shipped as Parttwin.
As-built part simulation and recipe optimisation before the build.
Plans the build job, routes events to the right agent, arbitrates between agents competing for the same machine or cell, enforces the autonomy level and the OEM parameter envelope, and sends any qualification-impacting action to a named approver.
Part of the platform, included in the Floor tier.
Planning, arbitration, human approval.
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.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Two agents will want the same machine or the same parameter. The orchestrator arbitrates on the job goal and the qualification rules, not on who asked first, and the handoff is logged like any other step.
Yield-and-Takt wants to raise scan speed on the build to recover takt lost to the recoat correction at layer 412.
Melt-and-Layer wants to trim laser power on part 17 to clear a lack-of-fusion precursor at layer 1,872.
Lack-of-fusion risk 0.61 on a qualified part outranks 1.1 hours of takt under the job goal. Melt-and-Layer wins the parameter for four layers; the speed change is deferred.
Yield-and-Takt recovers the takt by re-sequencing the oven queue with cuOpt instead. Density prediction holds at 99.8%.
Illustrative scenario.
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 |
Powdrix writes to production printers that make qualified parts. Every capability is scoped to the qualified envelope, every write is policy-checked, and every action is written to an append-only audit log the floor owns.
| Item | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 Type I | Cloud control plane | QUEUED Planned, first 6 months |
| SOC 2 Type II | Cloud control plane | QUEUED Planned, 6 to 12 months |
| SSO and RBAC | Console and approvals | QUEUED Planned, 6 to 12 months |
| AS9100 and ISO 13485 assurance packages | Evidence packets and model change control | QUEUED Planned, 6 to 12 months; not a certification claim |
| Standards-cited reasoning | AS9100, ISO 13485, ASTM F42, ISO 52900 | RUNNING In the design, every answer cites its source |
| Per-tenant isolation and on-prem option | Recipes, geometry, models, memory | RUNNING In the design from day one |
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.
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.
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