Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence and NASA Establish Cooperative Agreement

October 30, 2020, 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.

“We are excited for the opportunity to strengthen and expand our relationship with NASA,” says Mohsen Seifi, Ph.D., ASTM International’s director of global additive manufacturing programs. “This partnership agreement will create a collaborative environment to advance additive manufacturing projects key to NASA’s future successes.”

“We have been supportive of the AM CoE from the very beginning and we know this continued partnership will yield quantifiable benefits to support NASA’s continued investment in AM technologies,” according to Doug Wells, senior engineer at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

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 center also announced the addition of Richard Huff to serve as ASTM International’s additive manufacturing business development manager. Huff will be responsible for managing and expanding partnerships and the Industry Consortia for the AM CoE. Prior to joining ASTM International, Huff held positions with GE Additive and Caterpillar Inc.

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.

Formed in 2018, the AM CoE is a collaborative partnership among ASTM International and representatives from industry, governments, and academia, that conduct strategic R&D to advance standards across all aspects of AM technologies. The center aims to accelerate the development and adoption of robust, game-changing technologies.

Source: ASTM