Your company finally received that long-anticipated order for additive manufactured parts. Those parts are processed in record time and the order is promptly fulfilled. A week later … your worst nightmare comes true.

One of the last things you want to hear if you’re a manufacturer, distributor, vendor, or supplier is “your shipment is stuck and we have no idea when it’ll arrive.” What do you say to your customer?

In 2010 the ASTM F42 Committee on Additive Manufacturing (AM) created the terminology for an industry which up to then was referred to as rapid prototyping (RP). Parts made using the various rapid prototyping technologies were often used as design concept models, fit check mock-ups and function test articles. 

Additive manufacturing is at the forefront of the new industrial revolution. The additive manufacturing (AM) industry is constantly evolving to produce a stronger, consistent part. 

Many components and assemblies have internal features that are difficult to inspect, none more so than additively manufactured parts. Conventional quality control requires samples to be sectioned and subsequently scrapped.