Mar 20, 2018 | By Benedict
ASTM International, a standards and related services organization, has selected EWI and Auburn University-NASA as partners for its first ever Center of Excellence, which will focus on additive manufacturing or 3D printing.
Last year, as it prepared to establish its first ever Center of Excellence for 3D printing, standards organization ASTM International ran a global competition to find partners—both academic and industrial—who could help its mission to provide standardization to the world of additive manufacturing.
When the competition opened in November, president Katharine Morgan said the company was “thrilled to take this next bold step to bridge standards development with R&D, while also meeting the growing demand for related services in this field.”
Fast-forward a few months, and the winners of that competition, those selected to open the new Center of Excellence alongside ASTM, have now been announced.
The winners are engineering and technology organization EWI and Auburn University-NASA (who submitted a joint proposal), who will now work together to create a global innovation hub that advances technical standards, related R&D, education and training, and more.
“This game-changing collaboration will build a strong foundation for the future of additive manufacturing,” Morgan said. “The synergy among Auburn, NASA, and EWI—combined with the trailblazing work of ASTM's additive manufacturing committee—will help fill industry gaps and accelerate innovation.”
ASTM is confident that the diverse group will be able to make an impact right across the business world, and has already discussed how the workload will be shared across the organizations.
“It's clear that this new center has the potential to shape the future of industries like aerospace, auto, medical, and more,” Morgan said.
With funding, in-kind, and other support from ASTM International, the organizations involved in the Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence will focus on bridging standards development with R&D.
Manufacturing specialist EWI will work to build industry consortia, leveraging its track record of developing, testing, and implementing advanced manufacturing technologies.
“We are thrilled to be helping lead this new center of excellence with ASTM International, Auburn University, and NASA,” said Dr. Frank Medina, the AM technology leader at EWI. “We look forward to bringing AM industry leaders to the table and working with them to identify challenges, advance groundbreaking standards, and drive innovation in this fast-growing area.”
Auburn University, for its part, will attempt to develop education and training resources and tools.
“Our college has made major investments in faculty, laboratories, and equipment to achieve a leadership position in additive manufacturing,” commented Christopher Roberts, dean of Auburn University's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. “The efforts by our faculty are resulting in significant dividends to our research program.”
NASA, the other contributor to the new 3D printing center, said it would build on its relationship with ASTM to offer its own expertise to the project.
“NASA and ASTM International have had a decades-long relationship in developing aerospace and aviation standards that benefit NASA's mission and the industry as a whole,” said John Vickers, NASA's principal technologist in advanced manufacturing. “We look forward to working with Auburn and EWI to link R&D and standardization efforts that will uncover the vast potential of additive manufacturing applications.”
Excitingly, ASTM International says it is now considering an additional center of excellence outside the U.S. from its existing pool of applicants.
Posted in 3D Printer Company
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