SAE ITC Launches Data Consortium for Additive Manufacturing

The SAE Industry Technologies Consortia (ITC) is launching the SAE Aerospace Material Specifications Additive Manufacturing Data Consortium (SAE AMS-AMDC) to support the aerospace industry’s growing use of additive manufacturing (AM) through the development of data sets required for material qualification.

According to the group, part of the bedrock of material usage in aerospace are the rigorous material specifications. These, in turn, support the material handbooks used by the aerospace design community — especially those that are certified under the FAA, EASA, U.S. Air Force or other aviation regulatory agencies.

With decades of history of publishing AMS, SAE International was approached by the FAA in 2015 to apply the same expert methodology and experience for AM materials. Since its inception in 2015, the nearly 600 members of the SAE AMS-AM committee have created material and process specifications for both metals and nonmetals. However, in order to continue the advancement of these specifications, the committee identified a need for pedigreed data sets on which to base additional material specifications.

The SAE AMS-AMDC member companies will collectively generate and share data sets — each contributing its expertise and capabilities to design, build, test and analyze test articles. This is also an opportunity for members to contribute data from previous or ongoing related projects. The AMDC will prepare these data sets for use by the SAE AMS-AM committee to build new material specifications.

SAE AMS-AMDC charter members include Moog, MTC, Westmoreland Mechanical Testing and Research, Innovative 3D Manufacturing, Liberty Powder Metals and Tronos Manufacturing. These charter members will establish the operational framework, and initiate and oversee the AMDC’s pilot data set build project. The preliminary plan is to start the pilot project in the first quarter of 2021.