Should There Be an ISO System for AM? Hear UL’s Recorded Webinar

Manufacturers in certain industries have gone beyond the general quality management system ISO 9001 to develop systems tailored to their particular work and requirements. The aerospace industry, for example, now has AS9100. Medical device makers have ISO 13485. Additive manufacturing is a production method rather than an industry, but even so, is AM similar to these industry applications in that it also merits a specific quality management system?

Perhaps yes, says Christopher Krampitz, director of strategy and innovation for UL LLC. Krampitz discussed this question in a recent webinar hosted by Additive Manufacturing titled “Modifying QMS to Meet the Unique Needs of Additive Manufacturing.” While existing quality management systems are adequate and flexible enough to be adapted to AM, he says working through a system that has been adapted this way might be unnecessarily costly. The more efficient approach, as aerospace and medical manufacturers came to realize, might be to develop a system tailored for AM.

What would that system look like? One characteristic would be greater emphasis on process certification as a complement to measuring and certifying the final part.

The webinar was followed by an extensive Q&A session in which Krampitz responded to audience questions. To listen to all of this, the webinar and the Q&A, find the recording here.