TOffeeAM, a 3D printing topology optimisation software spinout fromImperial College London(ICL), has raised $1m in seed funding.
The investment round was led by venture capitalist firmIQ Capitaland supported by theRoyal Academy of Engineeringand ICL’sTechcelerate程序。Ed Stacey, Managing Partner of IQ Capital, commented: “With the intelligent software the team has developed, and the strong deep tech expertise of the team, the sky’s the limit in terms of TOffeeAM’s capabilities, and I’m looking forward to seeing the role they can play in the field of smart industrial production.”
Using the additional funding, the company plans to hire engineers and additional staff, expand upon its existing engineering capabilities and to further develop its customer base. Despite the fact the company has only been trading for a year, TOffeeAM already boasts clients such asGE Aviation,Baker Hughes以及一级方程式赛车队，并增加投资旨在推动进一步的增长。
“这笔资金将使Toffeeam有机会继续我们成功地加速所有行业的3D打印速度的速度高达20倍，并与专家工程师和其他团队成员扩展我们的团队，并继续扩展解决方案，以迅速为我们的解决方案服务扩大客户群。” Toffeeam首席执行官兼创始人Francesco Montomoli说。
“We are delighted to receive this funding from our investor partners – it’s a fantastic indication of their faith in the commercial applications of our technology.”
Toffeeam的3D打印软件包
Founded in March 2019 by ICL graduate trio Francesco Montomoli, Marco Pietropaoli and Audrey Gaymann, the IP is based on four years of research at the university. TOffeeAM’s software package is designed to optimize the topology of 3D printed components to best suit their target application. The ICL team’s software also optimizes entire systems, by reducing the overall number of component parts and increasing the resilience of systems as a whole.
Pietropaoli解释说：“我们的软件使用最先进的数学模型与人工智能相结合，以设计和改进组件，例如飞机和汽车发动机中使用的组件。”“我们可以创造更高效，更弹性和更强大的组件。它们可能更轻，或者可能有助于减少燃油消耗。以这种方式设计组件的优点是我们所说的“强大优化”，这意味着他们可以应对设计数据或制造中的错误。”
结果，该公司声称其软件的创造零件比使用常规方法打印的3D更快，效率高40％。此外，该公司的包裹已在智能工业生产中使用，为超过当前热交换器性能的燃气轮机生产冷却液系统。这使得该软件非常适合航空和汽车行业中的应用，其中部分设计仍然依赖于有限的人类直觉。
拓扑优化软件最初是作为ICL Techcelerate计划的一部分而开发的，该计划支持大学的毕业生建立新业务，并允许他们在市场上测试自己的想法。Pietropaoli补充说：“ Techcelerate是我在Imperial中经历的最好的计划，因为它不会尝试做太多。”“三个月来，您只能专注于客户发现。”
Since completing the program in 2018, the start-up has gone from strength to strength, licensing its software and gaining custom from industry stalwarts such as GE Additive. Its optimization tools have even received industry recognition and awards including the Enterprise Fellowship, from the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Techcelerate prize, theAmazon AWS Programmable2018 and theAmelia Earhart Fellowship.
“TOffeeAM’s success to date is a source of great pride for Imperial, and we’re pleased to see the company reach this latest milestone,” said Brijesh Roy, Seed Investment Manager at Imperial College London. “The combination of technical innovation and customer understanding TOffeeAM has achieved since inception, offers an outstanding example of the benefits of translating university research to industry.”
Nonetheless, for the company to keep expanding, it needed additional investment to grow its team of engineers and meet an increasing customer demand. Now with the investment from IQ Capital, the tech start-up will continue to develop new applications for its optimization software, with the aim of gaining new clients in the process. “We are at the beginning of an exciting journey, and this funding will help drive our growth and the wider use of this transformative technology across a variety of industries,” concluded Montomoli .
Start-up software in additive manufacturing
Optimization software is increasingly being adopted by 3D printing businesses seeking to design the most efficient possible components and this has led a number of software companies to develop their own workflow solutions.
UK-based software developer加性流for instance, has introduced itsFormFlow 3D打印软件, aiming to solve the digital challenges currently present within the additive manufacturing workflow. The program is designed to be adaptable to a range of materials and processes, facilitating efficient and sustainable design for a wide variety of applications.
3D printing service providerMaterialisehas also released anupdated versionof its data and build preparation software, Magics 23. The update introduced new integrated automation features for metal 3D printing, including simulation and automatic support generation.
Elsewhere, New York-based 3D printing software developersLINK3Dhas launched a new生产计划和计划解决方案用于增材制造工作流软件。生产计划系统（PPS）旨在帮助用户最大程度地利用机器利用率，跟踪和跟踪收益率以及容量管理。
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Featured image shows a group of researchers using TOffeeAM’s optimization software. Image via ToffeeAM.
