[rp-ml] ASTM Standards Activities

Hello Everyone,

Dr. Brent Stucker of Utah State University has asked me to forward the following letter of invitation. The rp-ml does not support attachments, so you can be otain them at http://wohlersassociates.com/astm.html.

Cheers,

Terry
 
************
Terry Wohlers
Wohlers Associates, Inc.
OakRidge Business Park
1511 River Oak Drive
Fort Collins, Colorado 80525 USA
970-225-0086
Fax 970-225-2027
tw@wohlersassociates.com
http://wohlersassociates.com

RP-ML Community:

You are invited to participate in an ASTM International organizational meeting to discuss the development of consensus standards for Additive Manufacturing Technologies. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 13 & Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at ASTM International Headquarters in West Conshohocken, PA (Directions are located at http://www.astm.org/MEETINGS/directions.htm and hotel information is located at http://www.astm.org/MEETINGS/hotels.htm). The meeting will commence at approximately 9:00 a.m. on Jan. 13 and adjourn at approximately 12:00 p.m. on Jan. 14. Attached for your information and use is a meeting agenda; please respond if you plan on attending by Friday, January 9, 2009. The agenda is attached for your reference.

At a planning meeting held on November 3, 2008 at ASTM International Headquarters, key members of the additive manufacturing community from around the world unanimously agreed to hold an organizational meeting for the development of this new activity within ASTM International. All interested parties, including consumers, manufacturers, suppliers, trade and professional societies, academics and government agencies are being invited to participate. The attendees at the planning meeting recognized that the establishment of a truly collaborative process for standards development was a unique opportunity for the collective industry.

Additive Manufacturing Technologies (a.k.a. rapid prototyping, additive fabrication, rapid manufacturing and solid freeform fabrication technologies) have established themselves as key enabling technologies for modern design and product development. More recently, there is an increasing use of additive manufacturing for the fabrication of end-use products directly from CAD data. As a result of the push toward direct manufacturing of end-use products (rather than prototyping), there exists a great need for standards.

The lack of standards today means that material data reported by various companies are not comparable, technology users employ different process parameters to operate their equipment according to their own preferences, there is little repeatability of results between suppliers, and there are few specifications which can be referenced by end users to help them ensure that a product is built as-desired. This significantly hinders the implementation of additive manufacturing technologies into new and emerging applications (particularly in industries where process repeatability and traceability are required -- such as in the aerospace and biomedical fields).

ASTM stands ready to accommodate this new standardization initiative. Your involvement in this meeting is critical to guide the direction of this new activity. The time is now for participation in a neutral forum whereby the private and public sectors can work together to develop a consensus standards program.

ASTM provides a management system for the development of standards and related information for materials, products, systems and services used internationally. All segments of an industry (producers, users, consumers, government, and academia) participate in the development of this information to ensure that all technical points of view are represented - it is extremely important that all parties are confident they will have fair and equal representation in the development of the final consensus standards. Finally, ASTM provides leadership and management support for 140 standards developing committees. These committees have produced over 12,000 standards for an extremely diverse collection of industries.

I hope that you will participate in this opportunity. If you have any questions concerning the above meeting, please feel free to contact Pat Picariello at ppicarie@astm.org or 610-832-9720. We look forward to your valued participation.

*******************************

Please feel free to forward this information to any interested parties worldwide. I hope to see you there.

Brent

_____________________________________
Brent Stucker, Ph.D.
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Engineering Bldg. Rm. 419H
Utah State University
Logan, UT 84322-4130
phone: +1 435-797-8173
fax: +1 435-797-2417
email: brent.stucker@usu.edu
Received on Tue Dec 02 16:16:03 2008