YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining on Thursday announced a new open project call worth a total of $5 million.

The Quality Test and Inspection Methods Expediency project call, funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Manufacturing Technology Office, focuses on the use of nondestructive inspection techniques for additive manufacturing processes, specifically laser powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition. 

The project aims to explore both in-situ and ex-situ NDI applications for inspecting large and complex parts. Up to five awards are anticipated.

“Industry and government stakeholders have clearly identified the need for trusted, efficient inspection techniques to support additive manufacturing growth,” said Ben DiMarco, technology transition director at America Makes. “The QTIME project call is an important first step, bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders and innovators to address both in-situ and ex-situ monitoring and inspection challenges inherent to [additive manufacturing]. QTIME focuses not just on developing new methods, but validating and transitioning mature technologies that agencies like the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration and NASA can trust – driving widespread adoption across the U.S. supply base.”

The proposed projects should apply to Technology Readiness Level 4-7 and Manufacturing Readiness Level 4-7 at the onset of the proposed project.

The QTIME request for proposal is separated into three topic areas:

  • Topic 1 – Rapid, Cost-effective Methods for Non-destructive Inspection of Large AM Parts: This topic targets the discovery of new methods to nondestructively inspect large area additive manufacturing parts. Successful ideas will reduce the NDI costs by more than 50% over currently available technologies. Materials of interest are those commonly found in LPBF/DED parts, such as Ti 6Al-4V, Inconel 718 and stainless steels. 
  • Topic 2 – Rapid, Cost-effective Methods for Inspection and Qualification of Complex AM Parts: This topic targets parts with complex, repeating geometries – such as LPBF lattice structures – featuring small internal features typically less than 5 to 10 millimeters, for which no robust inspection method currently exists. The goal is to advance in-situ geometric validation at these scales and translate that data into mechanical deformation models capable of identifying and accounting for missing or poorly formed features to enable worst-case deformation predictions.
  • Topic 3 – Industry Transition Team: This topic aims to accelerate the adoption, transition and implementation of monitoring and inspection methods for additive manufacturing. Currently, there are no widely adopted additive manufacturing-specific NDE standards with defined acceptance criteria. The ITT will act as a critical conduit connecting active America Makes projects, external resources, standards and end-use industry needs to identify, translate and scale inspection and monitoring practices for industrial implementation.

The submission deadline is 5 p.m. June 30. The anticipated awards announcement is July 30. For more information and to submit a proposal, click HERE.

A kickoff webinar is scheduled for 2 p.m. May 8. Register HERE.