Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence and NASA Establish Cooperative Agreement

 ASTM International’s Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence (AM CoE) announced the establishment of a cooperative agreement with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to support activities of common interest.  The three-year contract, worth up to $750,000, will serve as the basis to expand the AM CoE and NASA’s evolving partnership.

 This partnership will formalize collaboration aimed at supporting projects identified by NASA for the AM CoE to execute.  As a founding member of the AM CoE, NASA will have a defined role in each project developed through the cooperative agreement.

While the agreement allows for projects to be defined over time at the discretion of NASA, the AM CoE’s first project will focus on qualification procedures for laser beam powder bed fusion (LB-PBF) AM processes.  This topic is one of the largest impediments to the growing implementation of AM into many applications.

The AM CoE recently restructured the Industry Consortia, by redefining key roles and allocating additional resources.  The Consortia, with input from members and in coordination with regulatory agencies, will develop the know-how for AM data generation and help create AM materials databases.

 To further support the use of AM, the Consortia will coordinate with ASTM International technical committees, including the committee on additive manufacturing technologies (F42), and transform lessons learned and best practices into consensus-based standards available to the AM community.  The Consortia will also curate databases that serve as tools to accelerate the design and manufacturing of innovative AM products.