On November 18, 2025, the inaugural meeting of the Subcommittee for Data and Design under the National Technical Committee for Additive Manufacturing (TC562/SC3) was held in Yantai, Shandong Province, marking a significant step in standardizing the core foundational areas of China’s additive manufacturing (AM) industry. The event gathered officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Standardization Administration (SAC), TC562 representatives, and leading industry experts. The inaugural meeting, hosted by Li Haibin (Deputy Secretary-General of TC562), featured a report by Subcommittee Chairman Professor Shi Yusheng on the preparation and forming technologies of AM-specific materials, followed by a presentation from Professor Guo Chunhuan of Harbin Engineering University on the progress of a standard cultivation project for post-processing metal powder bed fusion.
Later, the subcommittee’s Secretary-General Lv Zhongli presided over its first plenary session. Li Haibin reported that China’s AM industry is developing rapidly, with equipment production rising 40.5% year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, consistently outperforming the national industrial average. Exports in 2024 reached 9.371 billion yuan, up 32.6% year-on-year, spanning 158 countries and regions. He described standards as a “firm benchmark” for the market and a “strategic move” for innovation. The industry has recorded 84 national and 21 sector standards to date. As the critical link between digital models and physical entities, data and design are key to driving high-quality development, with 12 related standards already published, providing a solid foundation for the subcommittee’s establishment. Li also emphasized the need for the subcommittee to focus on pressing industrial demands and key standards, strengthen international standardization capabilities to overcome core technological bottlenecks, and engage diverse stakeholders in building a comprehensive standards framework.
China’s AM standards system currently faces multiple challenges, including lagging foundational standards, inadequate standardization of cutting‑edge innovation methods, limited international integration, and insufficient convergence with digitalization. The establishment of TC562/SC3 is a direct response to these issues. By integrating expert expertise and developing a core standards system for data, models, and processes, it will address national strategic and industrial needs, foster an open and collaborative smart manufacturing ecosystem, and thereby facilitate the industry’s evolution from isolated breakthroughs to global leadership.
For foreign enterprises, it is crucial to engage early in China’s standard-setting processes through industry associations or joint labs, align technical pathways with local requirements, and adapt products to support domestic data formats and certification systems. Exploring R&D partnerships with local universities and leading companies, while closely monitoring evolving regulations on data cross-border flow and security certification for the AM industry, will enable a strategic shift from technology export to ecosystem co-creation.
Chinese source of the article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/f2Mether9PE0YogCybsvCA
