YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining on Tuesday announced the winner of a recent project call worth $13.2 million in funding.
The INtegrated System for In-situ Testing & Evaluation project is funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of War, Manufacturing Technology Office. Its objective is to establish an integrated additive manufacturing quality‑assurance system that unifies in‑situ monitoring and post‑build inspection to strengthen defect detection, advance U.S. Department of Defense priorities for more reliable additive manufacturing qualification and deliver production‑ready capabilities that enhance efficiency, readiness and competitiveness across the U.S. supply base, a news release states.
This combined in-situ and post-build nondestructive evaluation approach aims to improve inspection of some of additive manufacturing’s most challenging parts, including large components, dense materials and complex geometries that are difficult to assess using traditional methods, the release states. By combining real-time production monitoring with accelerated post-build inspection and expert oversight, the approach seeks to strengthen quality assurance, support certification and expand manufacturing capabilities for critical components.
Rather than advancing individual sensing or NDE technologies in isolation, the program is focused on developing and demonstrating an integrated quality assurance system that unifies in-situ monitoring and post-build inspection within a certifiable framework, the release states.
“As additive manufacturing advances toward larger, more complex applications, the ability to reliably verify part quality is becoming increasingly critical,” said Ben DiMarco, technology transition director at America Makes. “This initiative brings together advanced analytics, real-time process monitoring and NDE to create a more comprehensive approach to quality assurance. By strengthening confidence in [additive manufacturing] technologies, this work will help accelerate their adoption across the defense industrial base. We commend the winners for advancing this important and innovative effort.”
The winner of the project call is EWI. Project team partners include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing Co., GKN Aerospace GTC LLC, Norsk Titanium, Addiguru, FormAlloy, TRI Austin and Computational Tools.