(Nadcap: Warrendale, PA) -- Modern 3D printing began during the early 1980s as a way to produce rapid prototype parts. According to a new whitepaper from the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (Nadcap), additive manufacturing (AM), as it’s now called, is rapidly becoming a transformative technology.

Nadcap is developing an audit criteria checklist for powder material manufacture for use in metallic AM. This will complement the existing AM checklist for laser and electron-beam powder-bed fusion AM processes. Audit checklists are critical tools used to compare a company’s practices and processes to established standards.

Additive manufacturing uses CAD software-driven equipment to deposit polymer or metal material in layers to form precise solid shapes, such as aerospace parts. The whitepaper notes that the aerospace industry began using AM during the mid-1990s, and now builds a variety of parts with it, including air ducts, brackets, and fuel nozzles. NASA and SpaceX also make a variety of space hardware using AM processes.

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