15 Proposed Additive-Manufacturing Standards to Support Key Industry Accreditation

W. CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa., March 30, 2017 — 15 newly-proposed standards from ASTM International’s committee on additive manufacturing (F42) will help companies in that industry comply with a new checklist for accreditation by the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (NADCAP). The checklist is available through the Performance Review Institute.

Experts, auditors, and others interested in certification related to metal powder bed fusion, a type of 3D printing involving laser and electron beams, are encouraged to join the nearly 600 members of F42 and its subcommittee on materials and processes (F42.05).

“The development of a NADCAP accreditation checklist for additive manufacturing technologies is a critical step for the aerospace industry,” said Brian Kosinski, vice president of mission assurance at SSL, a major satellite company based in Silicon Valley.  “Standardization of materials and methods, where quality is essential, will be helpful for this rapidly evolving, highly process-sensitive industry.”

“We are pleased to see F42 stepping up to write the necessary standards to make NADCAP accreditation as straightforward as possible,” he continued.  “Broad participation to develop these standards will benefit the industry.”

This effort will supplement existing specifications published since 2012 for metal powder bed fusion. New standards that will provide reference documentation for NADCAP accreditation include (more information here):

• Guide for Creating Feedstock Specifications for Metal Powder Bed Fusion
• Guide for Storage of Build Cycle Technical Data
• Specification for Post Thermal Processing of Metal Powder Bed Fusion Parts
• Guide for Specifying Gases and Nitrogen Generators Used with Metal Powder Bed Fusion Machines
• Guide for Receiving and Storing of Metal Powders Used in Powder Bed Fusion
• Practice for Metal Powder Reuse in the Powder Bed Fusion Process
• Guide for Cleaning Metal Powder Bed Fusion Machines
• Guide for Disposal of Metal Powders Used for Powder Bed Fusion
• Guide for IQ, OQ and PQ of Metal PBF Machines
• Practice for Digital Data Workflow Control for the Metal Powder Bed Fusion Process
• Guide to Establish Manufacturing Plan for Metal Powder Bed Fusion Production Parts
• Guide for Metallographic Evaluation of Metal Powder Bed Fusion Test Specimens and Parts to determine porosity.
• Guide for Establishing a Personnel Training Program for Metal Powder Bed Fusion Part Production
• Guide for Creating Maintenance Schedules and Maintaining Metal Powder Bed Fusion Machines
• Guide for Calibrating Metal PBF Machines and Subsystems

The new standards will be offered for development in conjunction with the International Standards Organization’s Technical Committee 261 through a Partner Standards Developing Organization agreement with ASTM International (infographic here).

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