Polymer AM Integration and 

Standards

Dr. Scott Fish

University of Texas at Austin

Advanced Manufacturing and Design

Center

1
Polymer AM Growth

 Caveats:

 Lots of AM methods (FDM, SLA, SLS, Jet Fusion, and 

variants)

 Each has their own strengths and limitations

What I’d like to cover:

 Technical and Non-Technical Barriers to growth

 How can Measurement Science and Standards help?

2
Technical Barriers

 Lack of Tools for product Design

 Topological Optimization (not just mass reduction)

 Handling cellular/fiberous/porous geometry with consideration 

for basic process characteristics (layer based construction, for 

instance)

3

Lilian van Daal
Technical Barriers

 Lack of Tools for Fabrication Planning/Optimization

4

Materials 

Selection Process 

Selection

Orientation 

and Build 

Parameters

Slicing

Hybridizing 

and/or Post 

Processing
Foundations of Technical Barriers

 Lack of Sufficient Process/Material Understanding to 

“Model” constitutive systems as an enabler for Tool 

creation

 Data generation is growing

 New research is growing (both private and public)

 Improvement of Sensing specific to AM data needs 

 In-situ thermal and geometric sensing are a start

 Real-time material characterization at small scale 

Subsurface properties (inter-layer) assessment

 Rapid low cost inspection methods (geometry, 

microstructure) Non-destructive more critical for low part 

count products.

5
Non-Technical Barriers

 Lack of understanding for application opportunities and 

associated economic benefits paces capital investment for 

many in the larger manufacturing landscape

 Because AM is somewhat disruptive, it will grow from niche 

markets until more of the technical barriers are reduced

 Lack of widespread design experience with AM. This is 

being mitigated by expanded education, particularly at the 

HS and College levels and workforce development efforts 

at early adopter organizations. Public and private 

initiatives are leading the way.

 Stigma of Rapid Prototyping, “not for REAL

manufacturing”. Natural progression, don’t fight it, work 

with it.

6
Measurement Science

 Measurement methods MUST become more prolific and 

tailored with the growth in materials and process 

understanding to surmount the Technical Barriers

 Feedstock history and characterization (including recycling)

 Equipment condition monitoring and automated 

maintenance (preparation, execution, and cycling)

 In-situ part formation assessment and control

 Post process monitoring and control

 Quality assessment/Inspection (for low part counts)

 In-service part condition monitoring and automated 

recycling (including embedded monitoring)

7
Standards

 This is hard work, requiring significant understanding AND 

agreement among standards developers with a focus on 

OEM implementation feasibility and customer safety

 Intellectual Property is both a motivator and a hindrance to 

success

 Standards should address ”Evidence of quality” first

 ”How” standards driven hardest by:

 Public investment best practice development (less IP Restriction)

 Private investment by those willing to share: typically motivated by 

ecosystem and overall market building

That aught to create some questions... yes?

Thanks to my collaborators on this: Dave Bourell, David Leigh, 

Carolyn Seepersad, and Austin Regional Manufacturers Association

8