Additive OS: An Open-Source Platform for Additive Manufacturing Data Management & IP Protection

The additive manufacturing (AM) digital thread presents unique challenges for data management and security. While proprietary software packages solve many issues, they can be expensive and lacking in customization. Additive OS is an open-source platform for importing, sharing, organizing, and querying AM data. Man-in-the-middle attacks, secure print licensing, and IP theft are addressed using custom smart contracts, ontology is preserved with a NoSQL database and directed acyclic graph (DAG) representations, and peer-to-peer content delivery facilitates low-latency file transfer. The application includes a browser-based graphical user interface, but developers can access the underlying API to invoke sophisticated queries, add functionality, or run the lightweight client on low-resource hardware.