ASTM International announced today a “Request For Ideas” for short-term R&D funding needs aimed at accelerating standards development in additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing.  The organization anticipates providing up to six awards of up to $50,000 each.

“As we approach the first anniversary of our Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence, we are more committed than ever to supporting companies, universities, governments, and other partners that want to work with us to drive AM-related innovation,” said Dr. Mohsen Seifi, ASTM International’s director of global additive manufacturing programs.

A subgroup of experts (known as F42.90.05) representing various regions and organization types within ASTM International’s additive manufacturing technologies committee (F42) will evaluate ideas from the committee’s global membership of more than 700 experts who create and revise standards. Winning ideas will be assigned to the center of excellence’s partners who will collaborate with stakeholders to develop specific research plans (statements of work) covering three-to-four months.

“Our goal is to couple R&D with standards development, allowing us to more quickly put standards in the hands of people who are experiencing technical gaps,” Seifi said. “In turn, that will help reduce the time new products and technologies come to market while also broadening the adoption of additive manufacturing overall.”

Inquiries and questions must be received in writing by May 31 at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Idea submissions must be received from F42 members (become a member today) by June 17 at 5 p.m.  Final award decisions will be made based upon the statements of work, with projects launching at the F42 meeting Sept. 16-20 in Paris. 

The Center of Excellence will prioritize ideas surrounding these technical topics:

• Powder feedstock (e.g., spreadability, flowability, and reuse) 
• Design allowables
• Process qualification
• Post-processing (e.g., powder removal and surface finish)
• Coupons-parts correlation
• Fatigue and fracture properties/influence factors (e.g., defects, anisotropy, and residual stress)
• AM surface quality/characterization
• Best practice for characterizing AM anomalies
• AM part cleaning (e.g., contamination)
• AM data management (e.g., data pedigree)
• Static Properties
• Design for AM (DfAM)
• Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods for AM parts
• Standard machine output (i.e., build report)
• In-Process monitoring
• Computational modeling (e.g., data analytics)

Media Inquiries: Dan Bergels, tel +1.610.832.9602; dbergels@astm.org
Committee Contact: Pat Picariello, tel +1.610.832.9720; ppicariello@astm.org 

Release #10797