UL Additive Manufacturing Competency Center opens at University of Louisville

The University of Louisville and UL, a global safety science organization, announced Feb. 16 the official opening of the newly established 3-D printing training center named the UL Additive Manufacturing Competency Center (UL AMCC). Developed for established additive manufacturing (AM) technical and business professionals, the end-to-end training center, located on the University of Louisville campus, will be a hub for advancing AM knowledge and workforce expertise.

The UL AMCC offers hands-on training in additive manufacturing for metals and curriculum covering design setup, design corrections, machine setup, part production, post-processing and parts inspection, testing and validation. The training will allow professionals to understand how to produce metal parts and emerging materials through additive manufacturing, and establish safety systems, identify hazards from materials and machines and manufacture parts with safety built into designs. “This facility puts the University of Louisville at the forefront of the advanced manufacturing movement,” said UofL President James Ramsey. “Hundreds of workers from across the country will be trained here in the next few years. We will be helping ready the workforce for an industry that is evolving at a rapid pace.” “Our vision has always been to collaborate with the additive manufacturing industry to further innovation, safety and quality. The UL AMCC is a direct outcome of that collaboration. The University of Louisville, AM machine manufacturers and other industry leaders demonstrated incredible commitment in the creation of this facility,” said Simin Zhou, vice president of UL’s Digital Manufacturing Technologies division. The UL AMCC joins the University of Louisville’s global advanced manufacturing campus, the Institute for Product Realization (IPR), and collaborates and shares knowledge with other corporate residents, including GE and Local Motors’ FirstBuild. “The UL AMCC is a first-of-its-kind facility with the technical and educational expertise to not only progress additive manufacturing but also contribute to the future of manufacturing transformation. We see the intersection of industry information, UL’s training, certification and safety knowledge and the university’s additive manufacturing expertise and academic research creating a manufacturing environment unlike anything else,” said David Adams, CEO of the IPR. As additive manufacturing technologies evolve, UL AMCC will update course curriculum and introduce new content every six to 12 months. As part of the training program, UL has developed a formal additive manufacturing professional certification for students who have demonstrated proficiency in the minimum competencies to manufacture conforming parts. Concurrent to the opening ceremony, UL and EOS, the world’s leading technology and quality leader for high-end, industrial AM solutions, announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in which the two companies will collaborate to provide joint AM training, conformity advisory services and facility safety management to EOS customers. The goal of the relationship is to promote the proper usage and advancement of AM technologies to the manufacturing industry. “As the world-leading industrial 3-D-printing solution provider, EOS forms strategic partnerships to strengthen our core competencies of systems, process and materials.  Our partnership with UL allows us to join with our customers – both current and future – to push advancements in innovation, safety and quality,” said Glynn Fletcher, president, EOS of North America Inc. For more information about the UL AMCC, visit UL.com/ULAMCC. For information on specific courses or to register, visit UL.com/AMtraining or email 3dprinting@ul.com.