SME awards recognize additive manufacturing innovation, skill and leadership

SME, the professional association committed to advancing manufacturing and developing a skilled workforce, announced the winners of its Additive Manufacturing Community Awards, which were presented today at RAPID + TCT 2021, North America’s largest and most influential additive manufacturing (AM) event, Sept. 13-15 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

The awards were presented by SME’s AM Technical Community Leadership Committee and Direct Digital Manufacturing Advisory Team, which produce content for the organization’s programs and other industry events on advanced AM technologies and processes that allow the development, testing and manufacture of new products faster and more cost-effectively. The Additive Manufacturing Industry Awards celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of individuals, teams and companies creating significant impact in commercializing AM.

SME’s AM Technical Community Leadership Committee pre-dates the formation of RAPID + TCT. It originally was created in 1992 by the Rapid Prototyping Association (RPA), which joined the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) one year later to become the Rapid Prototyping Association of SME (RPA/SME). It later was renamed SME’s Rapid Technologies & Additive Manufacturing Community Advisors before eventually becoming what it is today. Its charge has always been to advise the organization on initiatives, activities, policy and strategy related to AM.

Because of this mantra, all three of the awards, which traditionally are presented at RAPID + TCT, are focused on the application of AM technology to production, not just research and development. This year’s Additive Manufacturing Community awards include the following:

• The AM Industry Achievement Award, established in 2008, was developed to recognize an individual or team for outstanding accomplishments that have had significant impact in the application of AM in any industry. The award recognizes achievements that have been implemented or deployed in a commercial/industrial environment rather than research investigative work. The recipient this year is David K. Leigh, PhD; Chief Technology Officer for Additive Manufacturing; 3D Systems. Dr. Leigh is recognized for his career-long contributions to the AM industry. He has been instrumental in pioneering standards and specifications on qualification of AM; building successful culture and systems at printing service houses; and founding (and eventually spinning off) companies that broadened the market and audience for AM technology.

• Aubin AM Case Study Award. The newly re-branded and updated “Aubin AM Case Study Award” looks to recognize innovations in application of AM technologies. The recipients include: B. Dutta; M. Lewan; V. Singh; R. Fortuna; F. Ghadamli; P. Gradl; R. Hickman; J. Fikes; M. Ogles; K. Wheeler; V. Hafiychuk; and H. Hafiychuk. Title of the project is “Rapid Large Scale Additive Manufacturing of Full-scale RS-25 Engine Nozzle Liner,”  and the involved business affiliates are DM3D Technology;  NASA Marshall Space Flight Center; the National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME)-Auburn University; and the NASA Ames Research Center.

• The 2021 Digital Manufacturing Challenge is a call for action to inspire the next generation of engineers. They are challenged to re-think ways to design, create, and utilize infrastructure-level systems that deploy engineering design and manufacturing solutions to strengthen infrastructure in the response, mitigation and/or prevention of such disruptive and devastating events and envision an optimistic view of healthy, robust, sustainable, smart, agile, peaceful communities. The recipients are: Sagar Patel and Martine McGregor, for the title, “Rapid Deployment of Patient-Specific Prosthesis Assemblies in Emergency Medicine.” Faculty Advisors: Mihaela Vlasea, Stewart McLachlin, and the business affiliation, the University of Waterloo.

For more information about the history of SME’s AM Technical Community, read, “SME’s Additive Manufacturing Community Celebrates Over 30 Years of Activity,” by Zach Simkin, past chair of SME’s Additive Manufacturing Community Advisory Board.