Formally launched in March 2016, the America Makes & ANSI Additive Manufacturing Standardization Collaborative (AMSC) is a cross-sector coordinating body whose objective is to accelerate the development of industry-wide additive manufacturing standards and specifications consistent with stakeholder needs and thereby facilitate the growth of the additive manufacturing industry. The AMSC was launched because a number of standards developing organizations (SDOs) are engaged in standards-setting for various aspects of additive manufacturing, prompting the need for coordination to maintain a consistent, harmonized, and non-contradictory set of additive manufacturing standards. The AMSC is not developing standards or specifications. Rather, its purpose is to help drive coordinated standards development activity.
On July 17, 2023, America Makes and ANSI announced the publication of the Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing, Version 3.0, developed by the AMSC. The roadmap describes the current and desired future standardization landscape for additive manufacturing (AM), and focuses on industrial market sectors using AM technologies. A total of 141 standardization gaps (including 60 new gaps) are identified with corresponding recommendations across the AM lifecycle areas of: design; precursor materials; process control; post-processing; finished material properties; qualification and certification; nondestructive evaluation; maintenance and repair; and data. The hope is that the roadmap will be broadly adopted by the user community to facilitate a more coordinated approach to the future development of AM standards.
The roadmap provides prioritized timeframes for when standards work should occur. Of the 141 gaps, 54 gaps/recommendations are identified as high priority, 64 as medium priority, and 23 as low priority. In 91 cases, additional pre-standardization research and development (R&D) is needed. The roadmap also identifies SDOs or others that may be able to develop the standards or perform the R&D. A “gap” means that a standard or specification does not exist addressing the issue in question.
The impetus to develop an update to the roadmap—last published in June 2018—began following a 2022 survey on the use of the roadmap. The AMSC advisory group—comprised of industry, government, and SDO representatives—concluded it was time to update the document to maintain its relevancy and alignment with current practices and stakeholder needs.
The AMSC roadmap describes 141 gaps where no published standard currently exists to respond to a particular industry need. When an organization initiates or completes research, standards or conformity assessment activities in a specific area identified in one of those gaps, an update is captured in the Gaps Progress Report. The current report was published in April 2025 and the next report is expected in September 2025.
America Makes is the nation’s leading public-private partnership for additive manufacturing technology and education. America Makes members from industry, academia, government, workforce and economic development organizations, work together to accelerate the adoption of AM and the nation’s global manufacturing competitiveness. Founded in 2012 as the Department of Defense’s manufacturing innovation institute for AM and first of the Manufacturing USA network, America Makes is based in Youngstown, Ohio and managed by the not-for-profit National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM).
Visit www.americamakes.us to learn more.
