Pittsburgh-based Surface Design Solutions has raised $925,000 and hired four employees to help manufacturers achieve dramatic cost reductions by optimizing surfaces. The surface quality of parts and tooling often impacts KPIs like scrap, rework, and product performance. The company’s software platform uses physics-informed machine-learning technology to discover the optimal surface for parts and tooling, then implements those performance gains in quality assurance. Without any new capital equipment to buy, they deliver double-digit-percent improvements in production efficiency. Through I-Corps, they profiled the types of manufacturers that were ready, willing, and able to improve profitability through surface optimization.
