Vention Has Launched an AI-based Machine Building Platform

A view of Vention's browser-based platform. Simple and capable.

Montreal start-up Vention.io has announced the beta launch of a browser-based industrial machine building platform.

Designing the machinery that makes machines can be a painstaking process. For many products, there aren’t off-the-shelf machine options available when it comes to manufacturing a novel design. In those cases, engineers have to build their own manufacturing equipment just to get their product out the door, and this added process can create cost overruns and project delays that might sink a product before it reaches its intended audience.

Vention believes that it has a solution to this quandary, and it is launching a web-based platform that gives designers a suite of easy-to-use tools that combines a UI familiar to CAD users, simple modular components, ready-to-order parts and strong AI all aimed at making industrial machine design simple.

“It became obvious to us that the next frontier for faster machine design wasn’t better design tools or higher performance hardware, but rather the integration between the two,” said Vention Founder and CEO Etienne Lacroix. “The launch of our beta program is a first step in enabling our partners to experience a novel design and build workflow that will accelerate the machine design process more than fivefold.”

Vention’s web platform is free to use and functions in much the same way that an assembly file would work in a CAD application. Users simply drag and drop components into a scene, and as parts begin to accumulate the AI working behind the scenes helps to select the appropriate components based on a what it interprets the machine’s designer is building. With smart snapping modular components at its core, the Vention platform makes piecing together an assembly intuitive and error free.

To complete the machine manufacturing process, Vention also offers next-day shipping on all machines, thanks in part to the modular and standard nature of its assembly components. Essentially, designers can create a machine in a near instant and have it on their doorstep the next day. Within hours of arrival, the machine can be assembled in a manner similar to any IKEA system. From there, production can run.

As design tools become more democratized and more small design firms begin to flood the market, services like Vention will be able to help these smaller firms stand up by delivering inexpensive, easy-to-assemble industrial machinery that can turn any engineer’s vision into a reality.

While Vention’s product is still in beta, the company represents an interesting move forward for short run manufacturing. As the platform continues to grow, it will be interesting to see if larger and smaller companies begin to adopt this new on-demand manufacturing tool. Regardless, Vention has created a relevant platform that should provide opportunities for engineering firms both large and small.