ASTM International (ASTM) and the 3MF Consortium (3MF) have today signed a liaison agreement to explore ways to align standards that will help advance and increase confidence in additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies.
ASTM is a leading standards-development organisation that serves as an open forum for creating and revising international standards. Launched last year, the 3MF Consortium is an industry association created to develop and promote a new full-fidelity file format to replace out-dated 3D printing fie formats. HP recently announced at the launch of its new Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution that is hopes to phase out STL in favour of 3MF in the near future.
“As adoption of the 3MF file format continues to ramp, it becomes increasingly important to develop a long-term 3MF technology roadmap that businesses support and trust,” Adrian Lannin, executive director, 3MF Consortium, commented. “This agreement with ASTM creates a cooperative relationship for knowledge-sharing and the pursuit of developing an established set of standards that will allow businesses to adopt 3MF with confidence.”
The 3MF Consortium is made up of industry leaders including founding members 3D Systems, Materialise, Stratasys, Dassault Systèmes, Microsoft Corporation, HP, Shapeways, SLM Solutions Group and Autodesk Inc. The first version of the 3MF specification is available now for download at no charge.
Example 3MF part
ASTM’s Committee on Additive Manufacturing Technologies (F42) launched in 2009 and now includes nearly 400 leading technical experts from 22 countries. The group, which meets July 11-14 in Tokyo, has established many widely used standards, with many more standards under development. ASTM has a cooperation agreement with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee 261 aimed at reducing duplication, maximising resources, and ensuring a strong global relevance of standards in additive manufacturing.
“ASTM members, including several who came from 3MF member companies, have led the way in creating standards that set the stage for innovation in 3D printing,” Daniel Smith, Vice President of technical committee operations at ASTM, explained. “This relationship will help 3MF and ASTM enhance their support for entrepreneurs and businesses that are changing how the world thinks about products such as airplane components, medical implants, and much more.”
