America Makes and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) released a draft of the Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing (Version 3.0) for public review and comment. Developed by the America Makes and ANSI Additive Manufacturing Standardization Collaborative (AMSC), the roadmap was last published in June 2018.

It identifies key issues, notes relevant published and in-development standards, and offers recommendations to address gaps in standards and specifications for additive manufacturing (AM). This includes recommending pre-standardization research and development (R&D) where needed.

It also proposes prioritized timeframes for when standardization work should occur, as well as standards developing organizations (SDOs) or others that may be able to lead such work. Working groups, including a new one on data across the AM lifecycle, have been developing the draft roadmap since a kickoff event held in September 2022.

The request for comment specifically invites observations or statements that represent critical revisions and needed clarifications on the roadmap content. Comments on the draft roadmap may be submitted by close of business on Wednesday, 31 May 2023. Use of the comment form provided is required to better manage and review comments.

The AMSC working groups are currently on hiatus and will reconvene in June to address the submissions received and finalize the document for publication by the end of July 2023. While all comments are welcome, the AMSC reserves the right to hold the disposition of comments in reserve for a future iteration of the document if they are unable to be addressed within the time available. This could include, for example, comments on the document’s organization, or issues not addressed.

The draft roadmap and related materials may be downloaded as follows:

• Working Draft Version 3.0 Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing (374 page 6MB pdf file)

• Instructions for Using Comment Form (pdf file)

• Comment Form (required) (Excel file). When accessing the form, you may be prompted for credentials; just hit “Cancel” one or more times to download and open the document.

Developed with input from hundreds of experts from industry, government, SDOs, and academia, the AMSC’s roadmap describes the current and desired future standardization landscape for AM. The focus is industrial AM across market sectors that are using AM technologies.

The roadmap is targeted toward a broad audience including OEMs, material producers, government and industry users of AM, SDOs, the R&D community, and others. Additional metadata has been introduced in the gaps to facilitate searching by lifecycle area, industry sector, material type, AM processes, and qualification and certification category. Gaps also consider current alternatives being used until an AM standard or specification is available to address an issue.

Over the last few years, the AMSC has been issuing semi-annual progress reports to maintain the roadmap as a “living document,” tracking the publication of new standards or the initiation of new standards projects by SDOs to address the gaps and recommendations contained in version 2.0. The AMSC also held a series of virtual events on various issues of concern, including process control to enable qualification, design for AM, feedstock materials, and inspection/monitoring.

Following a survey released in early 2022 about use of the roadmap, the AMSC advisory group—comprising industry, government, and SDO representatives—concluded it was time to update the document so that it remains relevant and aligns with current practices and stakeholder needs.

The AMSC was launched in 2016 as a cross-sector coordinating body the purpose of which is to accelerate the development of industry-wide AM standards and specifications to facilitate the growth of the AM industry. The AMSC does not develop standards. Rather, it identifies standardization needs to help drive coordinated standards development activity among SDOs. As administrator and coordinator of the US private-sector-led voluntary standardization system, ANSI has long served as a neutral facilitator with a successful track record of convening stakeholders from the public and private sectors to define standardization needs for emerging technologies and to address national and global priorities.