Progress Towards Metal Additive Manufacturing Standardization to Support Qualification and Certification

As the metal additive manufacturing (AM) industry moves towards industrial production, the need for qualification standards covering all aspects of the technology becomes ever more prevalent. While some standards and specifications for documenting the various aspects of AM processes and materials exist and continue to evolve, many such standards still need to be matured or are under consideration/development within standards development organizations. An important subset of this evolving the standardization domain has to do with critical property measurements for AM materials. While such measurement procedures are well documented, with various legacy standards for conventional metallic material forms such as cast or wrought structural alloys, many fewer standards are currently available to enable systematic evaluation of those properties in AM-processed metallic materials. This is due in part to the current lack of AM-specific standards and specifications for AM materials and processes, which are a logical precursor to the material characterization standards for any material system. This paper summarizes some of the important standardization activities, as well as limitations associated with using currently available standards for metal AM with a focus on measuring mission-critical properties. Technical considerations in support of future standards development, as well as a pathway for qualification/certification of AM parts enabled by the appropriate standardization landscape, are discussed.