Additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the hottest and most revolutionary processes to come along in many years. The thought of popping a design into a machine and having a functional part come out the other side was science fiction a generation ago. We are nowhere near the Star Trek replicators, but we are closing that gap.

The aerospace industry is increasingly adopting metal additive manufacturing for both flight safety-critical aircraft parts and non-critical flight parts. The approach offers a shorter development cycle, which means products can be developed quicker and design changes easily incorporated. 

Breaking new ground in production to be one step ahead—such is the ambition of numerous companies. In light of the additive manufacturing trend, this may be possible. Dr. Marcin Bauza, Dr. Claus Hermannstädter, and Dr. Robert Zarnetta explain how to support pioneering entrepreneurs in their efforts.

Quality and production performance play a crucial role in automotive manufacturing today. With many automotive innovations on the horizon, such as autonomous vehicles and smart cars, OEMs and suppliers are under pressure to adopt new manufacturing techniques and expertise to ensure design, cost and labor efficiencies. 

As this year's event made clear, 3D printing has reached a tipping point.

2017 was a transformative year for the materials testing industry. 

In the near future, critical aerospace and automotive production parts may indeed come from a 3D printer. The technology’s potential is huge, agrees ASTM Fellow Steven Daniewicz.

Handheld XRF (HHXRF) is the go-to tool for QA/QC, alloy identification and failure analysis of incoming and in-use standard industrial metals and alloys. Advancements in technology and data analysis software now make it an indispensable tool for non-standard and challenging QA/QC situations. 

What started as a project to investigate the accuracy and reproducibility of reverse engineering a product using computed tomography (CT) and additive manufacturing with 3D printing technology has helped to establish some guidelines and processes for the future of high-quality “3D copying.”

Visit a manufacturing industry trade show and you will see brightly colored parts on display on the 3D printing vendors’ stands.