America Makes, the Ohio-based national accelerator for additive manufacturing, and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have released an online portal for tracking standardization activity in additive manufacturing.
The interactive portal compiles the gaps in standards for additive manufacturing, identified through America Makes and ANSI’s Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing (Version 2.0) published in June 2018. It will be regularly updated based on the work done by standards developing organizations (SDOs) to address the gaps in additive manufacturing standards. America Makes Executive Director John Wilczynski comments:
“The new online portal will help to make the AMSC roadmap a ‘living document’ that keeps additive manufacturing stakeholders informed on the latest standards development activities.”
Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing
Working together, America Makes and ANSI have formed the Additive Manufacturing Standardization Collaborative (AMSC), which they formally launched in March 2016. It is a cross-sector coordinating body aiming to accelerate the development of industry-wide additive manufacturing standards and specifications, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
AMSC was launched to help coordinate the efforts of SDOs, who are working on developing standards for various aspects of additive manufacturing. The partners saw the need to coordinate the work in order to establish a consistent, harmonized, and non-contradictory set of additive manufacturing standards.
Initially, the AMSC launched version 1.0 of the Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing in March 2017. Focusing on the key industries of aerospace, defense and medicine, the document identifies 89 gaps in appropriate standards and specifications for 3D printing and its related processes.
After releasing a preliminary draft, version 2.0 was then launched a year later as an update on the original document, listing an increased 93 gaps where no published standard or specification currently exists to respond to a particular industry need. Over 150 industry stakeholders, including GE, EOS, Autodesk, Arconic, Apple, Boeing and 3D Systems, participated in the production of the AMSC additive manufacturing roadmap.
The AMSC online portal
AMSC’s online, interactive portal allows interested stakeholders to observe the progress of AMSC members in establishing additive manufacturing standards. Members include private industry, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), material suppliers, government, academia, standards developing organizations (SDOs), and other interested stakeholders.
The portal contains all 93 gaps identified in the version 2.0 roadmap. It is divided into sections corresponding to the standards categories established by the roadmap. These sections include design; precursor materials; process control; post-processing; finished material properties; qualification and certification; nondestructive evaluation; and maintenance and repair.
“ANSI is always looking for ways to deliver added value to the community, and the AMSC portal provides users an easy way to check on the status of work to develop additive manufacturing standards,” added ANSI President & CEO S. Joe Bhatia.
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Featured image shows the AMSC’s Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing (Version 2.0).
Featured image shows America Makes logo on the 3D printed puzzle from RAPID + TCT 2018 in Texas. Photo by Beau Jackson.
