An Opportunity To Learn New 3D Printing Standards

There’s an upcoming event that may be of interest to Fabbaloo readers.

The ASTM Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence is holding a one-day workshop in September to join with the public to help make everyone aware of the additive manufacturing standards they’ve been putting together.

The ASTM Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence is part of ASTM International, a worldwide organization that provides, among other things, highly defined standards for all types of industry. Currently they boast of some 13,000 published standards, 1,500 books and over 15,000 journals or technical articles.

One of the areas they’ve been working in is 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, through the ASTM AM CoE. Their goal:

“The ASTM International Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence (AM CoE) is a collaborative partnership among ASTM—and its 30,000 members—and representatives from government, academia, and industry that conducts strategic R&D to advance standards across all aspects of additive manufacturing (AM) which will accelerate the development and adoption of robust, game-changing technologies.”

Recently, their work involves:

• US$5M+ combined in-kind, government agency, and ASTM investment

• 5 projects initiated that will address 13 standard gaps and impact 16 standards

• 100 global team members and 8 training courses in development

While they have diligently been devising standards in conjunction with actual practitioners, the truth is that once made, these standards have to make their way into the wider world of additive manufacturing to reach ALL practitioners. That’s why they’re holding a workshop.

This is especially important because many of the standards in their inventory are recently developed and have yet to be known by most practitioners. And it will be an ongoing gap as new standards are being made all the time.

The next event turns out to be the second such workshop. This time it will take place near Paris, France, on September 16th. They describe the event as follows:

“To ensure the accelerated and successful adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) across a variety of industry sectors, those involved in AM technologies need a holistic understanding of the entire AM process and how they can benefit from standardized practices to ensure quality and consistency.

Those involved in AM technologies need a holistic understanding of the entire additive manufacturing (AM) process and how they can benefit from standardized practices to ensure quality, reliability, and accelerated successful adoption of AM in their industry sectors.

This one-day workshop will offer participants a unique and comprehensive snapshot of the entire AM value chain, including powder, design, processing, postprocessing, non-destructive inspection, qualification, and certification. The workshop will also address gaps in standardization and workforce development for AM technologies and how the newly formed ASTM AM Center of Excellence (AM CoE) is employing a combined approach of R&D and targeted standards development.”

The cost of the one-day event ranges from US$200-400, depending on your status (ASTM member, student, etc) and how quickly you register.

I believe it is important for full-time 3D print operators and management to understand these new standards, as they might take some time to implement, while at the same time might pop up as requirements in near-future customer requests.

You would not want to lose a deal because you weren’t standardized, would you?

Via ASTM AM CoE