Category: TEAMM Profile

SME: Manufacturing And Training For The Future

As they say on their website, SME “stands for manufacturing.” As one of the oldest manufacturing organizations, and a long-standing member of the TEAMM Coordination Network, SME, formerly known as the “Society of Manufacturing Engineers,” does a terrific job of promoting the constantly changing world of manufacturing technology and helping professionals (new and existing), educators, and students, to develop and improve their skills.

SME started in the midst of the Great Depression. 33 tool engineers formed the American Society of Tool Engineers in 1932 in Detroit, Michigan. With thousands of members today, the organization has evolved and continues to provide a wide variety of current resources, training events, and courses (through Tooling U-SME), and internationally recognized events, such as the RAPID-TCT trade show, one of the world’s largest 3D printing conferences.

Back in 2017, AM News profiled the Tooling U-SME Additive Manufacturing Training Courses in addition to a number of different posts about their workforce development programs.

In March of this year, we also talked to TEAMM Collaboration Network member, Dr. Ismail Fidan, who is a professor of Engineering at Tennessee Tech and associate author of the Wohlers Report, updating the annual academic R&D and education trends in additive manufacturing (AM) around the world. You can read more of Dr. Fidan’s insights in this post: Demand Grows For 3D Printing Technician Education At Undergraduate And Graduate Levels (which includes the bullet point about SME’s new AM Technician Certificate.

      • SME: The Additive Manufacturing Technician Certification is ideal for a candidate with a two-year associates degree in additive manufacturing or currently enrolled in a college program, and/or has one or more years of working experience in a manufacturing related field. The prep course covers key roles and responsibilities for an AM technician, the AM process chain, design for AM, material and process selection, secondary processes, and key safety considerations. The certification exam is a three-hour proctored, open-book and open-note exam consisting of 120 multiple choice questions.

As additive manufacturing, and traditional manufacturing, continues to change, organizations like SME can fill the knowledge gaps and help professionals and educators stay at the industry cutting edge. At TEAMM and AM News, we are proud that SME “stands for manufacturing” and that they are part of our network.

Learn more about the many membership benefits at SME. Here are a couple of their specific pages about manufacturing and AM certifications you can earn: 

Met-L-Flo Adds Value To Technician Education In AM

With its heritage as the second largest manufacturing city in the U.S., for much of the 20th century, Chicago was well known for metal fabrication. Although large manufacturing plants with booming smokestacks are a stereotypical image for the industry, much of America’s manufacturing output came from small and midsize family-owned businesses. Their impact was far from small: From electrical machinery to iron and steel products, machine tools to fabricated metals, Chicago sold manufactured goods all over the world.

UPDATE 15APR: At AMUG this year, Met-L-Flo tied for First Place with its entry of the “Master Chief” print. Congratulations to Bill Braune and the team.

Met-L-Flo ties for First Place Award at AMUG 2019 with "Master Chief"
Met-L-Flo ties for First Place Award at AMUG 2019 with “Master Chief”

As manufacturing shifts to more advanced methods, it is not surprising to find that only an hour straight west of Chicago sits a well-known voice in the world of additive manufacturing (AM). Met-L-Flo is a 3D printing and rapid prototyping service bureau headed by Carl Dekker, President of the company, and active advocate in two of the most prominent AM organizations: the ASTM F42 Committee and the Additive Manufacturing Users Group known as AMUG.

AMUG Board 2018 2019
Newly elected AMUG Board. Front row (L to R): Mark Barfoot, Leslie Frost, Carl Dekker and Tom Sorovetz. Back row (L to R): Vince Anewenter, Jamie Cone, Paul Bates, Todd Grimm and Gary Rabinovitzrof
   Note: You can read the full news post on the AMUG Board here.

Met-L-Flo Engineering was founded in 1969 as a consulting firm for the metal forging industry. Carl Dekker, current president of the company, introduced Additive Manufacturing in 1991 and Met-L-Flo, the service bureau, was born. The service company offers a wide range of rapid prototyping methods; rotational molding/casting, fiber-reinforced plastics, composites, and vacuum/thermoforming. Their services also include most of the leading additive technologies (3D Printing) in SLA, SLS, FDM, Direct Metal and Polyjet.

Carl served as the Chairman and Past Chairman (current) on the ASTM Committee F42. He is now serving as a vice president for AMUG.  With a background in additive manufacturing and his work on international standards, it makes a lot of sense that Carl would join the TEAMM Coordination Network.

With the Technician Education in Additive Manufacturing & Materials (TEAMM) project working to address critical gaps in technician education involving additive and materials science, having someone deeply familiar with the ASTM skills standards is essential to helping support the TEAMM Network. We are happy to have Carl and Met-L-Flo involved and sharing the value of higher skills for technicians.