An overview of information technology standardization activities related to additive manufacturing

As Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and connected machines are ever more widespread across most industries, there is a need for a better understanding about the standardization activities related to information technology (IT) within the scope of AM. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of existing standardization activities related to IT aspects of AM, including but not limited to data transfer and exchange. The paper covers the IT standardization activities in organizations, including ISO TC261, ASTM International, ISO TC 184, ISO/IEC JTC 1, Web3D Consortium, IEC committees, IEEE committees, 3MF Consortium and Khronos, which have the most active and ongoing projects. From this study, it can be observed that the manufacturing sector has generated the majority of standardization work, followed by industry R&D areas and the medical field. This paper also discusses two future IT standards for AM service platforms and for the medical industry.