A proposed new ASTM International standard—WK49230, Guide for Conducting Round Robin Studies for Additive Manufacturing—will focus on how to plan and conduct an interlaboratory study involving additive manufacturing processes or materials. It will provide guidance for planning to ensure that process, logistics and tools are identified and agreed upon in advance.

“One way to improve confidence and encourage proliferation of additive manufacturing technologies and parts is by generating more high quality data describing the performance of processes and parts,” says ASTM member Dr. Shawn P. Moylan, a mechanical engineer and project leader in the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Moylan says there isn’t much guidance available for conducting interlaboratory studies specifically in additive manufacturing.

Manufacturing companies, equipment vendors, university research labs and government agencies are among those who could use the proposed standard. Use of the standard will potentially improve the manufacture of high-value complex parts used in aerospace and medical devices, among other applications.