Jun 20, 2012

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers recently recognized the leadership and administration of ASTM International Committee F42 on Additive Manufacturing Technologies. Brent Stucker, Ph.D., chairman of F42, and Pat Picariello, F42 staff manager, have won the RTAM/SME Industry Achievement Award, given annually by the SME’s Rapid Technologies and Additive Manufacturing Community.

Stucker, who is professor of industrial engineering and Clark chair of computer aided engineering at the University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky., accepted the award during the SME RAPID 2012 Conference and Exhibition held in Atlanta, Ga., May 22-25. Picariello has managed Committee F42 since its creation in 2009.

“The past award winners of this achievement have been people involved in the additive manufacturing industry for a very long time,” says Stucker. “Although I have been involved for a long time, the ASTM F42 effort is relatively young. The fact that the community already sees this as being so successful and a key to the future of additive manufacturing is a great honor and recognition.”

Picariello says, “The fact that consensus standards are a recognized reality for the additive manufacturing industry speaks to the degree of relevance it has achieved, as well as the acceptance of standards as vehicles to enable innovation.”

The scope of Committee F42 is the promotion of knowledge, stimulation of research and implementation of technology through the development of standards for additive manufacturing technologies. F42 has approved four standards and is currently developing more than 20 others.

According to Stucker, F42 is enabling additive manufacturing to “go from an interesting generally-useful set of prototyping tools to a fully standardized set of technologies capable of making parts for the aerospace, biomedical and other industries.” Stucker notes that the committee has accomplished the following since its inception:

• Achieved a worldwide consensus on the name “additive manufacturing” for the industry;
• Standardized terminology for additive manufacturing processes through the development of ASTM F2792, Terminology for Additive Manufacturing Technologies;
• Published a process/material standard for additive manufacturing that gives direction on how to produce parts using Ti6/4 (ASTM F2924, Specification for Additive Manufacturing Titanium-6     Aluminum- 4 Vanadium with Powder Bed Fusion);
• Developed a new file format standard for data transmission (ASTM F2915, Specification for Additive Manufacturing File Format (AMF) Version 1.1);
• Generically defined a method for communicating part orientation and location for use in future standards; and
• Completed a partnership agreement with ISO that will lead to co-branded and co-developed standards.

As for upcoming activity, Stucker says that F42 is currently working to create a roadmap for the development of future standards. “We need more materials, processes and testing standards,” says Stucker. “And we are working to see that our current standards are consistent with the content being generated by ISO.” All interested parties are encouraged to join Committee F42.

Established in 2008, the RTAM/SME Award was developed to recognize an individual, team or company for outstanding accomplishments that have significant impact within the additive manufacturing industry or in any industry through the application of additive manufacturing technologies.

The RTAM/SME Award recognizes achievements that have been implemented or deployed in a commercial/industrial field rather than research investigative work. Winners are selected with consideration for the scope and scale of benefits realized and the potential future impact their work will have on the industry.

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Technical Contact: Brent Stucker, University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky., Phone: 502-852-2509; brent.stucker@louisville.edu
ASTM Staff Contact: Pat Picariello, Phone: 610-832-9720; ppicariello@astm.org
ASTM PR Contact: Barbara Schindler, Phone: 610-832-9603; bschindl@astm.org   

Release #9221