Polymer-Based Additive Manufacturing Characterization and Qualification Guidelines for Aircraft Design and Certification

Aerospace is quickly moving to incorporation of additively manufactured parts into new designs. Efforts are underway to develop and understand the processes and special considerations that need to be addressed when developing design allowables for the material produced from Additive Manufacturing (AM). A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) program to develop the framework of understanding polymer-based additive manufactured materials is underway. Topics include material and process specification development, test methodologies, build and test considerations, and quality assurance. The applicability of the data is progressing based on lessons learned from recent and ongoing AM material qualification programs.