Data Management and Data Curation for Additive Manufacturing: Annual Report

Author(s):

William Underwood, Mark Conrad, Greg Jansen, and Richard Marciano

Abstract:

This report describes key research issues in additive manufacturing (AM) data management that are important to the US Army and the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL). It also presents a research plan addressing some of these issues. The ability to manage the metadata and data of an additively manufactured part throughout its life cycle is key to achieving the Army’s vision of a more adaptive, agile defense supply base. The Additive Manufacturing Data Management Working Group (AM DM WG) has begun addressing this need by developing a Common Data Dictionary for AM, which is nearing completion and will be published as a standard by ASTM International. In FY21, the authors participated in AM DM WG activities to develop an AM common data model and an AM ontology. They also became acquainted with the powder bed fusion method of AM. The research plan for FY22 includes (1) participating in AM DM WG, (2) prototyping an AM research data management application, and (3) collecting DEVCOM ARL and University of Maryland (UMD) AM product and research data. Our longer-range research plan includes (1) developing a tool to support construction of an AM data package for submission to an AM data repository, (2) prototyping an AM data repository for use by DEVCOM ARL and UMD researchers, and (3) federating the prototype AM repository with other AM data repositories.