The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (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 at RAPID + TCT 2021, held September 13–15, in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

The awards were presented by SME’s AM Technical Community Leadership Committee and Direct Digital Manufacturing Advisory Team, which produce content for the organisation’s programmes 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 commercialising AM.

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

All three of these awards, which are traditionally 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 recognise an individual or team for outstanding accomplishments that have had significant impact in the application of AM in any industry. The award recognises achievements that have been implemented or deployed in a commercial/industrial environment rather than research investigative work. Winners are selected with consideration for the scope and scale of benefits realized and the potential future impact their work will have on the industry. The recipient is:
  • Name: David K Leigh, PhD
  • Title: Chief Technology Officer for Additive Manufacturing
  • Business Affiliation: 3D Systems, Inc.
  Dr Leigh is recognised 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 AM service houses, and founding (and, eventually, spinning off) companies that broadened the market and audience for AM technology.
• The newly re-branded and updated Aubin AM Case Study Award looks to recognise innovations in the application of AM technologies. The purpose of the award is to recognise outstanding use cases of AM adoption and implementation and to provide inspiration to others in their journey of AM application. The recipients include:
  • Names: B. Dutta (1), M. Lewan (1), V. Singh (1), R. Fortuna (1), F. Ghadamli (1), P. Gradl (2), R. Hickman (2), J. Fikes (2), M. Ogles (3), K. Wheeler (4), V. Hafiychuk (4), H. Hafiychuk (4)
  • Title: “Rapid Large Scale Additive Manufacturing of Full-scale RS-25 Engine Nozzle Liner”
  • Business Affiliation: DM3D Technology (1), NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (2), National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME)-Auburn University (3), NASA Ames Research Center (4)
• 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 utilise 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:
  • Names: Sagar Patel and Martine McGregor
  • Title: “Rapid Deployment of Patient-Specific Prosthesis Assemblies in Emergency Medicine”
  • Faculty Advisors: Mihaela Vlasea, Stewart McLachlin
  • Business Affiliation: University of Waterloo

www.sme.org