- Consultation on roadmap for safe adoption of additive manufacturing for safety-critical assets
The Lloyd’s Register Foundation has issued a draft roadmap on the safe adoption of additive manufacturing for safety-critical assets and is calling on interested parties to help strengthen the document by providing feedback.
In 2015, the Foundation published the Foresight review of structural integrity and systems performance. A key observation in the report was that additive manufacturing has the potential to enter widespread industrial use but it is important that the safety or reliability of critical infrastructure systems, such as energy, transport and water, is not reduced by using the technology. Through this roadmap the Foundation aims to indicate the work that it believes is needed to assure safe application of the technology and also identifies the unique activities where the Foundation could make a distinctive difference. After this consultation a final document will be published that will help governments, industry, academia and the public to understand the safety related risks and opportunities associated with additive manufacturing.
Dr Jan Przydatek, Programme Leader for Structural Integrity & Systems Performance, Lloyd’s Register Foundation said: “In line with our charitable purpose, enhancing safety of life and property, our starting point for the roadmap is the safe adoption of additive manufacturing to safety-critical assets. We reviewed existing roadmaps and consulted experts in the field to identify four key challenges that once developed will lead to safe adoption of the technology: qualification of technology; confidence in the supply chain; a competent and qualified workforce; and safety enhancements that additive manufacturing could enable.”
The Foundation is calling for feedback to ensure that it has identified the most important safety-related aspects for the application of additive manufacturing and on the ‘white spaces’ set out in the report – areas where the Foundation can make a unique and distinctive contribution to the safe adoption of additive manufacturing technology. The closing date for feedback is 31 January 2017.
The Roadmap for additive manufacturing can be downloaded at www.lrfoundation.org.uk/ publications/roadmap-for-additive-manufacturing-download.aspx and comments should be sent to am-roadmap@lrfoundation.org.uk by 31 January 2017.
Foresight reviews
The Foresight review of structural integrity and systems performance (2015) was the fourth review issued by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation in a series commissioned as part of its emerging technologies research theme. Foundation grants and programmes that have resulted from previous reviews include a £10 million research grant for the Turing Institute (The Foresight review of big data, 2014), grants totalling £9 million to three international consortia in the field of nanotechnology (Foresight review of nanotechnology, 2014), and a £10 million resilience engineering programme established by the Foundation in partnership with global engineering and consultancy firm, Arup (Foresight review of resilience engineering, 2015).
Lloyd’s Register Foundation
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Source: Lloyd’s Register Foundation
