Commerce Will Likely Send 3D Printing Proposal to Wassenaar in 2020, BIS Official Says

The Commerce Department will likely seek multilateral support for upcoming export controls on additive manufacturing of metals, said Sean Ghannadian, a Bureau of Industry and Security official and part of Commerce’s Wassenaar Arrangement group. Commerce is also moving toward controlling certain ceramic coating technologies as part of the agency’s effort to identify and restrict sales of emerging technologies (see 1911200045), Ghannadian said.

Ghannadian, speaking during a Nov. 20 Materials and Equipment Technical Advisory Committee meeting, said Commerce “just started” submitting proposals for interagency discussion for the 2020 Wassenaar cycle. Although he declined to comment on Commerce’s proposals for the 2019 cycle, which will be brought before a meeting of Wassenaar members in December, he said the “status” of those proposals will be made publicly available before the end of the year.

One of the most noteworthy proposals Commerce is considering for 2020 would control certain additive manufacturing equipment, or 3D printing, Ghannadian said. The “parameters” are not finalized, he said, but Commerce is discussing placing controls only on 3D printing equipment used in what the agency deems as “critical” technologies. “We’re interested in separating the ones that can make gadgets and things like that from the ones that can make parts of higher quality that can be used in aerospace and other critical applications,” Ghannadian said.

Commerce is only considering controls on “additive manufacturing of metal components” and possibly of ceramics, he said, and is not discussing plastics. “There could be some more in that area … in the future,” Ghannadian said. “But at this time the focus is primarily on the metals, maybe secondarily on ceramics, depending on what gets finalized.” He added the proposal has a “good chance” of getting sent to Wassenaar. “I don't know what those final parameters will be,” he said, “but some sort of proposal to address additive manufacturing of metals components will go through.”

Commerce has also discussed export controls relating to “thermal barrier coating technology for ceramics,” Ghannadian said. The agency has met with “industry members” to discuss ceramic coating technologies that are primarily used in aerospace and propulsion, he added, and Commerce is considering them as emerging technologies. “It’s moving toward a stand-alone emerging technology [control] to address these type of coatings for ceramics that are being used more often in aerospace applications,” he said.

Commerce is also considering proposals to address issues relating to certain silicones under Category 1 of the Commerce Control List and certain diffusion bonding and casting technologies under Category 2, Ghannadian said. Commerce is discussing a silicone-related proposal “based on foreign availability information submitted to us by” a technical advisory committee member, Ghannadian said. The agency is also considering a proposal to remove controls from diffusion bonding and casting technologies, partly because a “lot of that information may be available publicly,” Ghannadian said, such as “how to diffusion-bond two pieces of titanium together.” Although Ghannadian said he is confident that an additive manufacturing proposal will be sent to Wassenaar, he was unsure about others. “Nothing is finalized,” he said. “We don't know what will go through.”