Mechanical performance assurance and validation processes for additively manufactured parts

Additive Manufacturing is increasingly being used to produce functional metallic end-use parts, especially in Aerospace and Medical industries. AM made parts pose new challenges to quality assurance as the material is made during the process. There is an urgent need to provide new guidance and methods to enable AM made parts to be used in safety critical applications and to enable greater innovation in developing new AM processes and materials. Little work has been undertaken to address the lifetime performance of parts and the degree to which test parts can be used to assure part quality and determine material performance.
The scope of this project is to evaluate the current trends in AM and determine the applicability of international standard test methods for assessment of mechanical properties and failure of parts generated from the AM processes. Defining the process modelling input, quality assurance through the manufacture process and validation requirements will direct the requirement for test methods and outline the challenges.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is seeing increasing acceptance as a production technology for high value manufacturing, especially in aerospace and medical implants, enabling more complex and higher performance parts to be made more quickly than with conventional techniques. However, there are a number of barriers to its wider adoption in the UK which are being identified in the recent UK AM Strategy. These will include the challenges of validating parts and the lack of agreed testing standards. This program of work with NPL will address the testing gaps to support industry addressing the challenges as these become more apparent. Developing validation and definition of appropriate test methods to help the industry understanding the AM material behaviours with the industry and have an input on the standardisation of methods.