America Makes and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) announced the publication of the Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing, Version 3.0, developed by the America Makes and ANSI Additive Manufacturing Standardization Collaborative (AMSC). The roadmap describes the current and desired future standardization landscape for additive manufacturing (AM), and focuses on industrial market sectors using AM technologies. A total of 141 standardization gaps (including 60 new gaps) are identified with corresponding recommendations across the AM lifecycle areas of: design; precursor materials; process control; post-processing; finished material properties; qualification and certification; nondestructive evaluation; maintenance and repair; and data. The hope is that the roadmap will be broadly adopted by the user community to facilitate a more coordinated approach to the future development of AM standards.

The AMSC is a cross-sector coordinating body that works to accelerate the development of industry-wide AM standards and specifications consistent with stakeholder needs to facilitate AM industry growth. The AMSC was launched in 2016 because several standards developing organizations (SDOs) were engaged in writing standards for various aspects of AM, prompting the need for coordination to maintain a consistent, harmonized, and non-contradictory set of standards. The AMSC itself does not develop standards or specifications.

Approximately 300 individuals from 150 public- and private-sector organizations supported the roadmap’s development, including representatives of U.S. federal government agencies and national laboratories, SDOs, industry, academia, and others. The document represents the culmination of the AMSC’s work since September 2022 to identify key safety, performance, and quality issues for AM technologies, relevant published standards and those in development, as well as to assess gaps. A “gap” means that a standard or specification does not exist addressing the issue in question.

The roadmap provides prioritized timeframes for when standards work should occur. Of the 141 gaps, 54 gaps/recommendations are identified as high priority, 64 as medium priority, and 23 as low priority. In 91 cases, additional pre-standardization research and development (R&D) is needed. The roadmap also identifies SDOs or others that may be able to develop the standards or perform the R&D. Looking ahead, the AMSC will continue to track progress by the SDOs to address the roadmap’s gaps and recommendations.

The impetus to develop an update to the roadmap—last published in June 2018—began following a 2022 survey on the use of the roadmap. The AMSC advisory group—comprised of industry, government, and SDO representatives—concluded it was time to update the document to maintain its relevancy and alignment with current practices and stakeholder needs.

“The publication of the AMSC roadmap is a significant milestone, capturing the latest in standardization activity affecting the additive manufacturing community,” said Brandon Ribic, technology director, America Makes. “The roadmap illustrates where progress has been made over the last five years but also where opportunities remain for standards and R&D to increase the use of AM technologies.”

“ANSI extends hearty thanks and congratulations to the volunteers who developed the AMSC roadmap, and we are confident it will continue to guide standardization activity for the additive manufacturing sector,” said Joe Bhatia, president and CEO, ANSI. “ANSI has a long history of successfully bringing together public- and private-sector stakeholders to outline standardization needs for emerging technologies and national and global priorities.”

For more information, visit www.ansi.org/amsc or email [email protected].