America Makes
America Makes AM roadmap
In the 200-page report, America Makes evaluates the current position of additive manufacturing and outlines industry-wide targets moving forward.
The United States’ National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, America Makes yesterday published the Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing (Version 1.0) in conjunction with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
In the 200-page report, America Makes and collaborators evaluate the current position of additive manufacturing and outlines industry-wide targets moving forward. Ultimately, the goal of this document has been to coordinate, encourage and accelerate the continued development across the additive manufacturing field, though the consumer desktop 3D printing market has not been directly addressed in the report.
The roadmap’s publication represents the culmination of a year’s work by the America Makes & ANSI Additive Manufacturing Standardization Collaborative (AMSC), a group specifically established to coordinate and accelerate the development of industry-wide additive manufacturing standards and specifications. Federal agencies, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of Defense (DoD), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and several standards development organisations (SDOs), were instrumental in the formation of this collaborative. Altogether, more than 260 individuals from over 150 public- and private-sector organisations actively supported the document’s development with substantial representation from the aerospace, defence, and medical industries.
Providing a snapshot of the current additive manufacturing standards landscape, the roadmap also identifies 89 ‘gaps’, 19 of them considered high priority, where no published standard or specification currently exists to address a particular industry need. In 58 of those cases, additional research and development (R&D) needs have been identified. The document considers relevant standards, or standards under development, that relate to the issues discussed and includes recommendations for priority areas where there is a perceived need for additional standardisation activity. These areas include standards for design; process and materials (subdivided into precursor materials, process control, post-processing, and finished material properties); qualification and certification; non-destructive evaluation; and maintenance.
The design segments of the roadmap are specifically aimed at driving technological advancements in new and novel non-proprietary design methods and tools. It is hoped growth in this area will enable a cultural change and ‘break the cycle’ of designing additive manufacturing parts like cast or machined components. Focusing on material, the AMSC intend to strengthen the body of knowledge for benchmark AM property characterisation data. While the Roadmap is also aiming to drive technological advancements that enable faster, more accurate machines with larger build volumes under its process subheadings.
“The publication of the AMSC roadmap represents a significant milestone for the additive manufacturing community, one that will help to advance the growth of the industry,” said Ed Morris, vice president and director of America Makes. “We thank all of the participating organisations and volunteers for their commitment of time and energy throughout this process.”
AMSC Chair, Jim Williams, president of All Points Additive added: “We now need the industry and the standards developing organisations involved in this space to come together, adopt the recommendations set forth in the roadmap, and work to achieve a coherent and coordinated suite of standards and specifications for additive manufacturing. America Makes and ANSI plan to continue to further this dialogue.”
The AMSC was launched in March 2016 as a number of SDOs are engaged in standards-setting for various aspects of additive manufacturing. This has prompted the need for coordination to maintain a consistent, harmonised, and non-contradictory set of additive manufacturing standards. The AMSC itself does not write standards.
