Recommended Protocols for Round Robin Studies in Additive Manufacturing

Published

March 1, 2016

Author(s)

Shawn P. Moylan, Christopher U. Brown, John A. Slotwinski

Abstract

One way to improve confidence and encourage proliferation of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and parts is by generating more high quality performance data. Many in the AM community see round robin studies as a way to generate large data sets while distributing the cost among the participants, thereby reducing the cost to individual users. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has conducted and participated in several of these AM round robin studies. While the results of these studies are interesting and informative, many of the lessons learned in conducting these studies concern the logistics of the study and unique issues presented by AM. Existing standards for conducting interlaboratory studies on measurement methods along with NIST's experience form the basis of recommended protocols for conducting AM round robin studies. The role of round robin studies in AM qualification, some of the limitations of round robin studies, and the potential benefit of less formal collaborative experiments where multiple factors, AM machine being only one, are varied simultaneously are also discussed.

Citation

Journal of Testing and Evaluation

Volume

44

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

round robin, interlaboratory study, additive manufacturing, 3D printing, qualification

Citation

Moylan, S. , Brown, C. and , J. (2016), Recommended Protocols for Round Robin Studies in Additive Manufacturing, Journal of Testing and Evaluation, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=917433 (Accessed October 10, 2025)