Additive Manufacturing Users Group

Additive Manufacturing Users Group
Name	Additive Manufacturing Users Group
Abbreviation	AMUG
Formation	1990s
Type	Professional association
Headquarters	United States
Region served	International
Membership	Engineers, technicians, managers
Leader title	President

Contents

Additive Manufacturing Users Group is a professional association for practitioners of additive manufacturing, rapid prototyping, and 3D printing technologies. The organization brings together professionals from corporations such as General Electric, Siemens, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin alongside representatives from academic institutions like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Georgia Institute of Technology. It facilitates knowledge exchange between supply-chain firms including Stratasys, 3D Systems, EOS GmbH, and SLM Solutions through conferences, technical working groups, and collaborative projects.

History

The group traces roots to early user collectives formed during the rise of stereolithography and selective laser sintering in the 1990s, intersecting with milestones at firms such as 3D Systems and Stratasys. Key developments paralleled innovations at institutions like Oak Ridge National Laboratory and events such as the Consumer Electronics Show where industrial exhibits highlighted material extrusion and powder bed fusion. The association expanded as aerospace OEMs including Airbus and Northrop Grumman adopted metal additive workflows, and as standards organizations like ASTM International and ISO began codifying test methods. Growth accelerated when members from University of Sheffield and Imperial College London contributed academic studies that informed industrial practice and when procurement programs at United States Air Force and European Space Agency drove adoption.

Membership comprises engineers and managers from multinational firms such as Amazon, Ford Motor Company, Toyota, and General Motors, alongside staff from research centers including Fraunhofer Society, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and National Institute of Standards and Technology. Governance typically involves a board with representatives from companies like Honeywell and Raytheon Technologies, academic liaisons from Carnegie Mellon University and University of Michigan, and committees that coordinate with standards bodies such as ASTM International and ISO Technical Committee 261. Membership tiers allow participation by suppliers including Materialise and Renishaw, service bureaus like Protolabs, and startup manufacturers backed by investors connected to Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

Annual conferences attract delegates from corporations including Boeing, Rolls-Royce Holdings, GE Aviation, and Siemens Energy as well as researchers from MIT, Caltech, and ETH Zurich. Program elements include keynote addresses by industry leaders from GE Additive and HP Inc., panel discussions featuring representatives of NASA and European Space Agency, and hands-on workshops run with vendors such as EOS GmbH and SLM Solutions. The events often coordinate with trade exhibitions like Formnext and symposiums at universities like Purdue University and University of Sheffield, and they sometimes host career fairs attended by recruiters from Tesla, Apple Inc., and Samsung.

Technical working groups cover topics developed alongside institutions such as NIST, Fraunhofer ILT, and Cranfield University. Projects have addressed process qualification using test matrices inspired by research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, materials certification with input from Dow Chemical and BASF, and post-processing standards influenced by studies at Imperial College London and University of Cambridge. Collaborative efforts have included build optimization efforts referencing software from Autodesk, Siemens PLM Software, and Dassault Systèmes, as well as sensor integration pilots leveraging platforms by National Instruments and Keysight Technologies.

The group's influence is evident in adoption curves at manufacturers like Rolls-Royce', Pratt & Whitney, and Safran, and in procurement strategies at defense contractors such as BAE Systems and Thales Group. Collaborative research with universities including MIT, University of Sheffield, and RWTH Aachen University has informed certification pathways used by regulators like Federal Aviation Administration and European Union Aviation Safety Agency. Partnerships with standards bodies (ASTM International, ISO) and consortia such as Aerospace Industries Association and National Center for Manufacturing Sciences have helped align industry practice with test methods developed at NIST and Sandia National Laboratories.

The organization produces conference proceedings and technical papers drawing on contributors from MIT, Stanford University, Georgia Tech, and University of Oxford. It curates case studies involving companies like GE Additive, Stratasys, Renishaw, and Materialise and distributes white papers on topics ranging from powder handling to qualification processes informed by research from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Training materials, webinars, and recorded sessions often feature collaborations with software vendors such as Autodesk, ANSYS, and MSC Software as well as hardware suppliers including EOS GmbH and SLM Solutions.