Wichita State University's National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) is assisting SAE International's Polymer Additive Manufacturing (AMS AM-P) Subcommittee in developing new technical standard documents for the aerospace industry.

Paul Jonas, NIAR director of technology development and special programs, serves as the subcommittee chairman.

"SAE's polymer additive standardization activities complement the qualification framework under development at NIAR," he said. "Publicly available polymer additive manufacturing material and process specifications will provide the aerospace industry and regulatory authorities with documents that may be utilized by industry to purchase and process material consistently."

Together, the documents will provide technical requirements and quality assurance provisions for the Fused Deposition Modeling process and material feedstock characterization needed to produce high quality parts for aerospace applications utilizing Stratasys ULTEM 9085 and ULTEM 1010. The documents include:

AMS7100 – Fused Filament Fabrication Process

AMS7100/1 – Fused Filament Fabrication – Stratasys Fortus 900 mc Plus with Type 1, Class 1, Grade 1, Natural Material

AMS7101 – Material for Fused Filament Fabrication

"Additive manufacturing will play a significant role in the technology needed to produce parts capable of service in critical and non-critical aerospace service," said David Alexander, director of aerospace standards for SAE International. "The important work done by SAE's AMS AM-P subcommittee will help the industry move forward with this technology."

Chris Holshouser, director of specialty solutions for Stratasys, said the committee's work is important for the entire aerospace industry.

"SAE's polymer additive manufacturing standardization work shows a key maturation step for the industry and will allow for users to clearly understand the critical parameters and controls that are necessary for the production of reliable, repeatable, reproducible aerospace parts," Holshouser said. "Stratasys is committed in supporting this endeavor to provide confidence to adopters of AM and advance the aerospace field."

SAE International's AMS AM-P is a subcommittee of SAE's AMS-AM, Additive Manufacturing Committee, and was initiated based upon a request from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to assist airlines utilizing additive manufacturing to produce cabin parts. In addition, the subcommittee's documents will support the broader aerospace industry's interest in qualifying polymer additive manufactured parts.

Qualified professionals with an interest in serving on the AM-P subcommittee and contributing to the development of the documents, should contact Laura Feix, SAE Aerospace Standards Engineer, by email or at +1 724.799.9198.

SAE International is a global association committed to being the ultimate knowledge source for the engineering profession. By uniting over 127,000 engineers and technical experts, we drive knowledge and expertise across a broad spectrum of industries. We act on two priorities: encouraging a lifetime of learning for mobility engineering professionals and setting the standards for industry engineering. We strive for a better world through the work of our charitable arm, the SAE Foundation, which helps fund programs like A World in Motion® and the Collegiate Design Series.

NIAR supports the aviation industry by providing research, development, testing, certification and training. Laboratories include Additive Manufacturing, Advanced Coatings, Aging Aircraft, Ballistic & Impact Dynamics, CAD/CAM, Composites & Advanced Materials, Computational Mechanics, Crash Dynamics, Environmental Test, Full-Scale Structural Test, Mechanical Test, Nondestructive Test, Research Machine Shop, Reverse Engineering, Robotics & Automation, Virtual Reality and the Walter H. Beech Wind Tunnel. NIAR operates on a nonprofit budget and is the largest university aviation R&D institution in the U.S., located in Wichita, Kansas, the "Air Capital of the World."