WAAM3D: Software

Challenge

WAAM3D use innovative metal additive manufacturing technologies to implement solutions for large-scale industrial metal components for the aerospace, energy, marine and mining industries. Each additive print can greatly reduce raw material usage, making wire-based additive manufacture an excellent option when producing high-quality metal parts.  

During a long printing process, accurate monitoring is essential to achieve the high tolerances and standards required for each part. WAAM3D needed to create the first in a suite of software products which allow operators to monitor the printing process in real-time and react to any discrepancies as they arise.

Concurrently, as a startup looking to become recognised as an established business, WAAM needed to signal to potential customers that they had matured beyond University R&D and were ready to be a major player in the industry, with a full turnkey solution of enclosure, materials and operating software.

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Insights

This was an opportunity to bring together the wealth of skills, expertise and experience across Seymourpowell to complete a comprehensive brand ecosystem for WAAM3D: a consistent, cohesive package of hardware and software which inspires trust and promotes quality.

Importantly, the software needed to be easy to use over extended periods, ensuring that operators could maintain the exceptionally high standards of each precious print.

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Outcome

Working from a proof-of-concept engineering interface, we refined the user experience through iterative wireframes and testing, and overhauled the entire UI to ensure it was easy and delightful to use, and consistently on brand. The UI rises above typical engineering experiences, yet expresses unquestionable authority and credibility, which is key in this field.

The UI is an easily-glanceable interface for quick determination of errors and warnings to allow operators to log and react to deviations from the pre-defined safe printing parameters. Interface sounds were crafted to ensure warnings could attract the right attention in noisy and busy workshop environments.

We created pixel-perfect screens, detailed UX specifications and developer assets. Working in close partnership with the team at WAAM3D and their development partners, we were able to deliver a result which captures the business’s progressive ethos and bold vision.