Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing 2.0 Released

America Makes and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) announced the publication of their Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing (Version 2.0). The roadmap is the work product of the America Makes & ANSI Additive Manufacturing Standardization Collaborative (AMSC), a group chartered to coordinate and accelerate the development of industry-wide additive manufacturing (AM) standards and specifications. Some 320 individuals from 175 public- and private-sector organizations supported the document’s development. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) provided major funding for the initiative.

The new roadmap describes the current AM standardization landscape and identifies 93 “gaps”—18 of them high priority—here no published standard or specification currently exists to address a particular industry need. In 65 of those gaps, additional pre-standardization research and development (R&D) needs are identified. Updates are provided on progress against gaps identified in the earlier version of the roadmap, with many gaps having been substantially revised. A number of new gaps also have been described, many involving polymers. The document considers the life cycle of an AM part, from initial design, to materials and process selection, production, post-processing, finished material properties, testing, qualification, and maintenance.

“We are extraordinarily pleased at the AMSC’s continued progress to define a coherent set of additive manufacturing standards and specifications that will benefit the industry,” said Rob Gorham, executive director of America Makes.

“It’s been a privilege to be involved with the committed group of professionals who make up the AMSC and I want to thank all of them who contributed to this undertaking,” said AMSC chair Jim Williams, president of All Points Additive.

“Coordination of standards development activity in emerging technology areas is something that ANSI excels at, and we have been very pleased to partner with America Makes to define the standards needed to help grow the additive manufacturing industry,” said Joe Bhatia, president and CEO of ANSI.

The roadmap is supplemented by the AMSC Standards Landscape, a listing of standards that are directly or peripherally related to the issues described in the roadmap. Both documents and additional information are available on the AMSC website at www.ansi.org/amsc.