By Callie Higgins, NIST

With the aim of “Building a Unified Vision from Research to Regulation,” the Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing Alliance (PAMA) met in September at the University of Colorado Boulder to continue its mission to advance photopolymer additive manufacturing (PAM). The PAMA 2023 Workshop attracted over 80 attendees from major research labs, government, universities and industry. Led by Dr. Callie Higgins and Dr. Jason Killgore from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST), in collaboration with RadTech, the Association for Ultraviolet and Electron Beam Technologies, the workshop yielded tangible, productive conversations and roadmaps at the outset of the two days.

The PAMA 2023 Workshop is a follow-up to the 2019 workshop, which resulted in the development of a Roadmap developed by NIST Report from the Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing Workshop: Roadmapping a Future for Stereolithography, Inkjet, and Beyond. ¹ The 2019 roadmap offered an expansive view of PAM technologies and detailed opportunities for industry-academia-government partnership.

The PAMA 2023 Workshop was designed to amplify, modify, update and expand on the NIST Roadmap, as well as to develop activities to begin roadmap implementation.  The event provided a forum for candid, pre-competitive conversations through a series of seven panel discussions, including the following:

• A Data-Driven Future for PAM Materials and Process Discovery
• PAM In and On the Human Body: Biomedical Applications Now and In the Future
• Is Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing Compatible with a Safe, Sustainable, Circular Economy
• Not Just Plastic: Composites, Ceramics and Multimaterial PAM
• Do You Know Your Light Engine?
• Informing Better Prints by Understanding Our Printers
• Can You Measure It? Enabling Next-Generation Photopolymers with Measurements and Standards

From these panels, interactive roundtable discussions worked to develop comprehensive roadmaps for current and future directions. These discussions produced 14 roadmaps that included an array of diverse topics with working titles including the following, to highlight a few:

• In-and ex-situ metrology for part and process evaluation
• Update and improve standards for print reliability
• Ensure PAM is compatible with a safe, sustainable economy
• Develop support for commercialization of PAM in emerging biomedical applications
• Develop a light engine report card
• Hyper scale data readiness for architected materials
• Develop Pathways for Data Sharing to Support Regulatory Needs

PAMA workshop attendees continue to hone each of the identified roadmaps, with a full roadmap update report published by NIST expected in mid-2024. Dr. Callie Higgins and Dr. Jason Killgore were honored at the event for their leadership in the development of the NIST Roadmaps and PAMA Workshop. Immediately following the PAMA Workshop, the PAMA Executive Advisory Board met to address regulatory and market advancement opportunities.

The PAM Workshop was part of the first-ever Photopolymer Week and was followed by Photopolymerization Fundamentals, a highly respected biennial conference focused on the latest research and critical questions on the photopolymerization process. The event had record attendance and included short courses, a poster session, exhibits and presentations on topics including next generation materials, 3D printing and medical applications, providing an important forum for scientific discussion and collaboration.

For those who are not yet members of PAMA, contact Gary Cohen at gary@pama3d.org or visit www.pama3d.org for more information. The next industry gathering is set for May 2024 in Orlando, Florida. For more information, visit www.radtech.org.

References

1. Roadmapping a Future for Stereolithography, Inkjet, and Beyond, https://pama3d.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/NIST_SP_1500-17.pdf