Abstract

Online 3D printing business is becoming popular in small-scale manufacturing industry, where products are finished through multiple processes, such as 3D printing, laser-engraving, and grinding etc. Such online manufacturing business not only brings customers with more convenience to access the manufacturing resources, but also satisfies flexible and customized product demands. However, due to the complex and dynamic manufacturing scenarios, customers heavily rely on the 3D printing provider, which amplifies security and uncertainty concerns. Therefore, this paper introduces a blockchain-enabled collaborative cloud manufacturing framework for online 3D printing business, followed by its core enabling technologies and typical characteristics. First, blockchain information service is proposed as a middleware to connect the physical devices with the blockchain network. Second, the blockchain-enabled collaborative mechanism is designed and discussed in the context of online collaborative 3D printing. Third, the concept of versioning smart contract is defined and developed to explore its rule-based management and control in production planning, scheduling and execution. In a real case, we develop and apply the prototype of blockchain-enabled collaborative cloud manufacturing in a 3D Printing start-up company. Based on the experimental results, key advantages and challenges for the prototype’s implementation and application are analyzed, thereby providing direction for future research.

Keywords: Blockchain, Collaborative cloud manufacturing, Versioning Smart Contract, Online 3D Printing