Last year Lloyds Register and the engineering consultancy TWI produced a framework for certifying metal parts that had been additively manufactured, and the two companies have now revised this based on their experience in working on projects and developing industry standards.
The overall idea is to help both manufacturers and end users safely adopt additive manufacturing and achieve high quality parts. This update reflects a more user-friendly approach to manufacturing certification, breaking down the approach into 5 key areas: design, materials, manufacturing, post-processing and inspection and testing.
It also includes a broader range of AM technologies such as wire-arc additive manufacturing, which is commonly used for larger-scale parts and production in shorter amounts of time. There’s also more information included on laser powder bed fusion and laser metal deposition processes based on real-world expertise.
Claire Ruggiero, Innovation Director at Lloyds Register, explained: “The disruptive nature of AM combined with the cross-industry potential has really lent itself to a collaborative approach to developing a more standard way to qualify and certify all aspects of parts made by AM.”
The new framework should offer manufacturers a step-by-step approach to provide the necessary level of consistency, qualification and confidence to work with Lloyds Register’s inspection and certification services.
Dr Chris Dungey, Joining Technologies Group Manager at TWI, adds: “LR and TWI’s collaborative approach is an end-to-end model that can help clients from the earliest starting line: questioning the use of AM and how to exploit its benefits, to the eventual finish line of certifying and selling AM parts into the open market. These guidance notes support that model.”
You can download the new document “Guidance Notes for the Certification of Metallic Parts made by Additive Manufacturing.” for yourself.
Lloyds Register is owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and engineering. It has worked on a number of projects to improve certification efforts for additive manufacturing. These include supporting the Singapore Centre for 3D Printing at Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) in its work with Keppel Offshore & Marine (based in Singapore) to qualify proceses for the additive manufacturing of large-scale parts suitable for the harsh conditions typical of offshore & marine applications.
Another project involves working with the Rotterdam Additive Manufacturing Lab (RAMLAB) on a joint industry project for metal parts on demand, to verify that the AM technology selected can consistently ensure compliance with all applicable requirements.
Lloyds Register is also working with TWI on a joint industry project, Achieving Regulatory and Code Compliance for Additive Manufacturing, which will investigate the routes to regulatory compliance of parts selected by project sponsors, and produce data and assessment criteria for the introduction and acceptance of parts through third-party inspection.
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