AMUG Technical Competition names 2026 winners
Organization recognises excellence in post-processing and advanced manufacturing concepts, as REM Surface Engineering and B9Creations take top honors
The Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) has named the winners of its 2026 Technical Competition as REM Surface Engineering and B9Creations.
Following its annual conference, held March 15–19 in Reno, Nevada, AMUG selected REM Surface Engineering as the winner of the Finishing & Post Processing category, additionally bestowing a Members’ Choice award on the Southington, CT company. B9Creations took the top prize in the Advanced Concepts classification.
Joshua Boykin, Ph.D., a senior research chemist at REM Surface Engineering, submitted the Finishing & Post Processing winner and Members’ Choice entry, titled “Breaking the Powder Barrier: Selective Chemical Declogging Enables Truly Free AM Design”.
The work presented a production-ready chemical process that removes sintered powder from enclosed internal passages in metal powder bed fusion components, without degrading thin-wall geometries. High-resolution X-ray CT analysis validated near-complete powder removal and preservation of functional flow paths in complex triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS)-based heat exchanger architectures.
Judges praised the entry as “an amazing solution to a problem currently creating a massive roadblock for the adoption of powder metal additive manufacturing,” adding that it “allows for even more geometric freedom and complexity”. The panel also noted it would “help reduce scrapped parts and promote new designs that would be too difficult to process using traditional depowdering processes”.
Microscale silicone work earns Advanced Concepts title
Ethan Hartmann, solutions engineer at B9Creations, won the Advanced Concepts category with “Additive-Enabled Miniature Silicone Component Manufacturing via Sacrificial Tooling”.
The entry demonstrated a workflow for producing platinum-cure silicone components at the microscale using high-resolution digital light processing printing and silicone-safe soluble tooling, achieving complex internal geometries and fine features measuring a few hundred microns — dimensions not achievable through conventional molding.
Judges described the approach as having “excellent potential for complex geometry” and called it “very unique and niche”.
Second and third place in Advanced Concepts went to Halil Tekinalp of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for a dual-extrusion multi-material printing system, and Jason Jones of Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies, for a hybrid workflow integrating in-situ ultrasonic inspection.
In Finishing & Post Processing, second place was shared by Aaron Sherman of HellermannTyton, for a functional prop replica from the Fallout television series, and Joe Olguin of Sandia National Laboratories, for work demonstrating residual stress management in LPBF components sectioned to 400 microns.
Technical Competition Committee Chair Corey Wardrop said, “The 2026 Technical Competition brought together a truly diverse set of skills and creative drive. All 20 entries showed a very high standard, and judges had difficulty isolating their favorites, as evidenced by very close scorecard rankings. These competitors represent the very best of the additive industry.”
Boykin and Hartmann will present their projects from the main stage at the 2027 AMUG Conference. AMUG presented six DINO Awards at its conference last month.
