Your First Guide to ASTM Certification Part 2: What Certification Delivers

Voluntary, Yet Effectively Mandatory. What Does That Mean for You?

Part 1 covered how ASTM was founded, the role of Committee F42, and the overall landscape of AM standards. Part 2 answers the question many people are left with: why does a voluntary standard become mandatory in practice, and what does ASTM certification actually deliver to your organization?

[Read Part 1: Your First Guide to ASTM Certification Part 1: What Is ASTM, Really?]

Why “Voluntary” Does Not Mean Optional

This is the most misunderstood aspect of ASTM — and the most important thing to understand.

ASTM standards are voluntary. No law requires compliance. So why do so many companies treat ASTM certification as non-negotiable?

The answer lies in how procurement actually works.

In the United States, the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 legally requires the federal government to adopt privately developed consensus standards — like ASTM — wherever possible, rather than creating its own government-specific standards. This single piece of legislation embedded ASTM standards into government procurement requirements across defense, aerospace, and infrastructure.

From there, the logic cascades:

The U.S. Department of Defense requires ASTM compliance from contractors
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and other major aerospace OEMs require ASTM compliance from their suppliers
Those suppliers require ASTM compliance from their sub-suppliers
The requirement flows down the entire supply chain

The same pattern applies in medical devices, automotive manufacturing, and industrial equipment. Major buyers set the rules. To sell to Boeing, comply with ASTM. To sell to companies that sell to Boeing, comply with ASTM.

The result: a standard that is legally voluntary becomes commercially mandatory the moment a major customer writes it into their procurement requirements.

Companies that have dismissed ASTM certification as a formality consistently find themselves excluded from global supply chains — not by law, but by commercial reality.

What ASTM Certification Actually Delivers

For those outside the United States, a natural question arises: if we only do business domestically, do we really need ASTM certification?

That question is understandable. But consider this. Obtaining ASTM certification is not the goal — it is the means. The goal is standardization: unifying quality, processes, and communication to eliminate problems. Certification is simply the proof that this has been achieved. And the benefits of standardization apply to every manufacturer, regardless of whether they operate globally.

It is also worth clarifying the difference between compliance and certification, as the two are frequently confused.

Compliance means a company self-declares that it manufactures in accordance with a given standard. No third-party confirmation is required, and the claim can be made immediately. However, the evidentiary weight is low. Whether customers trust it is entirely up to them, and most major OEM procurement requirements will not be satisfied by self-declaration alone.

Certification means a third-party body has conducted an audit and confirmed that the organization meets the standard. It carries significant evidentiary weight and is widely accepted as a procurement qualification. In short, “we comply” is a self-declaration. “We are certified” is a fact confirmed by an independent third party.

As for which certifications to pursue, the AMQ certification program operated by ASTM AM CoE uses a modular structure. Organizations can select the modules relevant to their needs:

Parts quality module (based on ISO/ASTM 52901): quality requirements for purchased AM parts
Metal PBF process module (based on ISO/ASTM 52904): process control for metal powder bed fusion
Facility safety module (based on ISO/ASTM 52931): safety management for AM facilities
Personnel certification: individual qualification for AM operators

There is no requirement to obtain everything at once. Organizations can start with the modules most relevant to their business, customer requirements, and application risk profile.

In concrete terms, standardization delivers four things.

1. Quality Can Be Proven Objectively

The benchmark is not your internal quality standard. It is a standard developed by more than 800 experts representing the global AM community. The difference between “we believe our process is good” and “our process has been confirmed by a third party to meet the industry’s defined criteria” is the difference between a claim and a proof. ASTM standards define what needs to be verified and to what extent. That basis makes objective quality claims possible — claims that customers, insurers, and regulators can evaluate against a known benchmark.

2. Quality Becomes Consistent and Reproducible

AM’s persistent challenge is that the same machine, operated with slightly different parameters, can produce parts with significantly different properties. Standardizing processes in line with ASTM standards means quality is controlled, documented, and repeatable.

3. A Common Language for Global Procurement

When procurement teams in Germany, the United States, or Singapore review supplier qualification documents, ASTM certification is immediately understood. There is no need to explain your internal quality system from scratch. The certification communicates it.

4. Responsibility Becomes Clearly Defined

ASTM standards provide a framework for defining who is responsible for what and to what extent.

Within the supply chain, a material manufacturer that supplies powder in accordance with ASTM standards has fulfilled its material-related responsibilities at the point of delivery. Beyond that point, responsibility shifts to the processor. Without standards, these boundaries are ambiguous, and when problems arise, accountability becomes unclear.

The same applies internally. Without industry-wide standards, engineers face the same questions on every new project: what needs to be verified? Which inspection criteria apply? How much is enough? Without a framework, organizations cannot commit fully to quality guarantees, and progress stalls. The gap between the experience of a single company and the accumulated knowledge of the global industry is enormous. It takes time and money to bridge.

The IQ/OQ/PQ (Installation Qualification, Operational Qualification, Performance Qualification) framework introduced by ASTM addresses this directly. Each department — equipment installation, manufacturing process, quality control — is given a defined set of responsibilities at each stage. Rather than inspecting every finished part, the process itself is qualified. Once qualified, parts produced by the same process meet the defined quality criteria. Sampling inspection then becomes sufficient. Speed and quality assurance, balanced.

This is possible because ASTM standards represent the collective knowledge of more than 800 experts. No single organization needs to solve these problems alone.

Consider the situation in Japan, where the author is based. Many Japanese manufacturers are attempting to develop internal quality evaluation standards based on their existing manufacturing experience. That instinct is understandable. But AM is a fundamentally different process from conventional manufacturing. No company anywhere in the world has yet accumulated sufficient experience.

When a company says “we developed our quality evaluation criteria based on our own experience and judgment,” customers and business partners will ask: who can prove that those criteria are correct?

But this is not only a question from customers. The same challenge arises internally. If the engineering team develops an AM quality evaluation framework, how will other departments respond — quality assurance, procurement, senior management? When the team that created the criteria and the team conducting the evaluation are the same group, that is not quality assurance. That is self-assessment.

AM is a new domain. That is precisely why standards developed through rigorous debate among experts from around the world are necessary.

Whether ASTM Certification Is Needed Depends on What You Make

A common misconception is that ASTM is required for aerospace, required for medical, required for defense. This framing is imprecise.

What determines the need for ASTM is not the industry — it is what is required of the specific part. Within aerospace, the structural components of an aircraft and a ground-level jig used in the manufacturing facility operate at entirely different requirement levels. Being in aerospace does not automatically mean every part requires ASTM compliance.

Three axes determine the requirement level.

The first is impact on human life. Parts where a problem could result in death carry the highest requirement level. Aircraft engine components, medical implants, and defense equipment are representative examples.

The second is regulatory compliance. Robotic grippers and parts used in food production or pharmaceutical manufacturing may not directly affect human life, but they must meet regulatory requirements such as food safety laws and GMP standards. ASTM provides the framework for demonstrating that compliance.

The third is business continuity. If a robot arm part in a high-volume production line fails, the line stops. Downtime costs directly affect the business. Even where human risk is low, high quality and reliability are demanded.

The right question is: what happens when this part has a problem? That answer determines the requirement level and the need for standards.

One further point: this is not only a matter for in-house production. When AM parts are outsourced to an external supplier, the buyer decides whether to require ASTM compliance based on application risk. For the supplier, the ability to demonstrate quality through recognized standards — regardless of the application — is a source of competitive advantage. A supplier that can say “we manufacture and verify in accordance with ASTM standards” and one that cannot are evaluated very differently by buyers. ASTM certification matters to both sides of the transaction.

For reference, the following are sectors where high-requirement situations are particularly common.

Aerospace

If a part fails in flight, lives are at risk. ASTM F42’s aerospace-relevant standards cover feedstock materials, finished part properties, and system performance. That said, even within aerospace, some parts — ground-level tooling, for example — carry lower requirement levels.

Medical Devices

Implants and surgical instruments operate inside or in direct contact with the body. Regulatory approval processes frequently require demonstrated compliance with ASTM standards.

High-Volume Production Lines

Robot parts and grippers used in automotive, electronics, and food production lines will stop the line if they fail. Even where human risk is low, quality and reliability must be demonstrated.

Defense

Defense procurement in the United States, the United Kingdom, and allied nations references ASTM standards extensively. Supplier qualification frameworks explicitly require ASTM-aligned documentation.

The Global Picture: Why Other Countries Are Moving Fast

Manufacturers in China, South Korea, and Singapore have recognized something that Japan’s industry has been slower to act on: ASTM is not simply a compliance requirement. It is a strategic arena.

In 2023, China’s BLT (Bright Laser Technologies) became the first company in Asia to achieve ASTM Strategic Partner status. This was not individual initiative — it was the result of organized corporate and national strategy, backed by ASTM’s establishment of a China office with Mandarin-language infrastructure.

Singapore’s ST Engineering Land Systems obtained early AMQ certification in 2023, with government research agency A*STAR providing organized support for standardization activities.

South Korea’s KATS (Korean Agency for Technology and Standards) engages with ASTM organizationally, including hosting AM certification seminars at major industry events.

The pattern across all three countries is consistent: government, corporations, and research institutions working together, with sustained budget and personnel commitments, to participate in and influence the direction of ASTM standards.

Organizations that participate in standards development do not just follow the rules — they help write them. That influence shapes what “necessary quality” means for each application: strict standards for aerospace components, efficiency-focused standards for prototypes. Countries and companies absent from that conversation must accept whatever definitions others establish.

AM Insight Asia Perspective

Writing this article, the author will be honest: there was much to relearn in the process. The name ASTM was familiar. Its importance was understood. But whether it was truly understood — that is harder to answer with confidence.

Questions kept arising as the article took shape. Is this only relevant to the United States? Does it apply to companies that only operate domestically? Does it only cover metals? What about jigs and fixtures? Who does it affect when parts are outsourced? Each question required research, and the article was revised in response.

What became clear through that process is this: the importance of ASTM does not lie in obtaining certification as an end in itself. Standardization is at the foundation of manufacturing, and holding the common language of standardization is what makes quality demonstration, accountability, and participation in global procurement possible. That applies to companies operating only domestically, to companies outsourcing jigs, and to companies producing polymer parts.

Knowing something and understanding it are not the same thing. If this article helps close that gap for even some readers, it has served its purpose.

One final thought. Your organization has most likely obtained ISO certification at some point. Why? Because it was necessary — to demonstrate quality, to earn the trust of customers, to participate in markets. ASTM is no different. The domain has changed. The standards being asked for have changed. That is all. You obtain it because it is necessary.