The International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing (ICAM) began as a workshop nearly a decade ago. In the last five years, it has grown into a full conference programme and one of the key gatherings for the additive manufacturing industry.
This year, it is set to feature hundreds of presentations and welcome more than a thousand participants, with the organisers keen to provide content and networking opportunities for engineers and decision-makers alike.
On the eve of the 2025 event, the ASTM International team [ASTM] sits down with TCT to discuss the rapid growth of ICAM, the event's core motivations, and what attendees can expect from this year's programme.
TCT: ICAM returns between October 6-10. How do you reflect on the growth of this event over the last few years and what would you put its success down to?
ASTM: ICAM’s growth has been driven by the vision, planning, and the hard work of the event staff, as well as efficacy of the event’s Scientific Organizing Committee. What started in 2016 as a focused workshop on topics like structural integrity, fatigue, and fracture of AM parts has evolved into the world’s largest technical conference dedicated to standards-driven AM. In 2020, ICAM became a full-scale conference, and today it convenes more than 1,100 participants, 800 presentations, and 26 symposia.
The success comes down to one thing: community. ICAM is built on collaboration between the leading technical decision makers from industry, academia, and government, all working together to solve the practical challenges of qualifying AM for production. Unlike trade shows, ICAM is not about selling products. It’s about exchanging knowledge, advancing standards, and building trust in manufacturing technologies. That’s why it has become the forum of record: deeply technical, standards-driven, and global in scope.
TCT: How would you assess the mission and motivation of ICAM?
ASTM: The mission is to accelerate the responsible adoption of advanced manufacturing by building trust. That means advancing standards, creating qualification and certification frameworks, and sharing cutting-edge research in an environment where stakeholders can align. The motivation is pragmatic: moving from promising prototypes to certified, production-ready systems that meet aerospace, defense, medical, and industrial demands at scale.
TCT: The event kicks off this year with a series of short certificate courses. What can you tell us about this offering?
ASTM: Ahead of the main program, ICAM will host certificate courses led by ASTM experts and partners. These are designed for engineers, managers, and policymakers who want structured, credentialed training in areas like additive manufacturing processes, standards, qualification, and certification pathways. The technology is only as good as its practitioners. No matter how advanced the hardware and software becomes—or even how advanced AI becomes—we need to push to develop the global workforce to be able to deploy these manufacturing processes.
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TCT: From Monday through to the end of the week, we enter a cycle of keynotes, symposia and panel discussions. What will be among the subjects discussed in the panel sessions this year?
ASTM: The panels address some of the most pressing issues facing advanced manufacturing today:
- The House Always Certifies: Building Trust in Additive Manufacturing through Qualification & Certification
- Repair, Replace, Reimagining: Advanced Manufacturing for Military Operations
- Tipping Points in Adoption: Aerospace End User Perspectives
- Going Beyond Additive Manufacturing: How Can Convergent Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Support Additive ManufacturingGrowth?
Together, they highlight ICAM’s role as both technical forum and an industrial bridge—looking not just at additive manufacturing itself, but also how convergent technologies and end users shape its path to adoption.
TCT: And what aspects of additive manufacturing will be covered in the symposia?
ASTM: With 26 symposia, the agenda spans the full additive manufacturing value chain: powders, polymers, metals, composites, construction, cold spray, monitoring, qualification, sustainability, and supply chain resilience. Sessions dive deep into fatigue and fracture, in-situ monitoring, digital workflows, and regulatory compliance. For example:
- “Acoustic NDT of Additive Manufacturing Medical Devices” by Daniel Rodríguez Sanmartín of Theta Technologies
- “Additive Manufacturing in Army Ground Vehicles” by Tad Steinberg at Siemens Energy
- “Waste Heat Recovery Heat Exchanger for Next-Gen Propulsion” by Brian Fisher at the RTX Technology Research Center
- “Additively Constructed Seismic Protective Bridge System” by Islam Mantawy at Rowan University
If it affects how AM moves from research to qualified production, it’s on the program. Beyond additive, ICAM 2025 also reflects ASTM’s expanding role in advanced manufacturing ecosystems.
Several symposia focus on convergent technologies such as robotics, AI, cybersecurity, digital twins, and advanced process monitoring—highlighting how these disciplines accelerate AM adoption. Talks include building an integrated digital thread with generative AI, advancing digital twin “manufacturing memory,” and strengthening cybersecurity compliance for Industry 4.0. Together, these sessions show how AM is increasingly interconnected with broader advanced manufacturing innovations that will define the next decade of production.
TCT: There will be five keynote breakfast sessions across the week – what can we expect from this year’s keynote presenters?
ASTM: The keynotes set the tone each day, linking technical advances to broader industry and policy priorities. Attendees can expect perspectives on aerospace and defense, scaling production, supply chain dynamics, and energy. For the keynotes, we’re proud to host some of the leading minds in the industry, including: Thomas Pomorski, of Ursa Major; Vladimir Navrotsky, of Siemens Energy; Jason Bridges, of Lockheed Martin; Steve McKee, formerly of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Materiel Readiness; and Louise Slade, of DEEP Manufacturing.
TCT: It’s a comprehensive agenda with plenty on offer, but what are you most looking forward to this year?
ASTM: The highlight is always the collaboration: the chance to see technology developers, decision makers, and end users sitting side by side to align on qualification and adoption. One particularly exciting piece of the program are the panels on aerospace adoption and convergent technologies, which show how ICAM is expanding its lens in step with ASTM’s new role leading the Advancing Standardization for Critical & Emerging Technologies (ASCET) Center of Excellence.
TCT: We’re just a few weeks out from the event, but there’s still time for people to register. Who should attend and why?
ASTM: ICAM is for anyone serious about industrializing advanced manufacturing:
- Engineers and researchers driving new processes and materials
- Quality and certification professionals focused on production readiness
- Executives shaping AM adoption strategies
- Policymakers and regulators framing workforce and compliance pathways
What makes ICAM unique is balance. It’s technical enough for engineers, but also practical enough for decision-makers. If you want to be part of the conversations shaping standardized practices, qualification, and emerging technology ecosystems for the next decade, ICAM is the place to be.
