YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining on Thursday announced the winners of a recent 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, and aims to explore both in-situ and ex-situ NDI applications for inspecting large and complex parts. 

“Projects like QTIME highlight the invaluable contributions of our members, who steadily advance and mature additive manufacturing,” said Ben DiMarco, technology transition director at America Makes. “We are honored to collaborate with them and confident that their work will enable future innovations in both in-situ and ex-situ monitoring and inspection, accelerating AM progress across the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA.”

Here are the award winners and related topic areas:

Topic 1: Rapid, Cost-effective Methods for Non-destructive Inspection of Large AM Parts

Awardee 1:

  • Team Lead: Honeywell International Inc.

Awardee 2:

  • Team Lead: Northrop Grumman Systems Corp.
  • Project Team: GE Aerospace, Pinnacle Industrial X-Ray Laboratory.

Topic 2: Rapid, Cost-effective Methods for Inspection and Qualification of Complex AM Parts

Awardee 1: 

  • Team Lead: Applied Science & Technology Research Organization of America.
  • Project Team: Applied Optimization Inc., The Pennsylvania State University – Applied Research Laboratory, Florida State University, Colorado School of Mines, Honeywell Aerospace, Lockheed Martin.

Awardee 2: 

  • Team Lead: RTX Technology Research Center.
  • Project Team: Pratt & Whitney, Intact Solutions, Velo3D.

Topic 3: Industry Transition Team

  • Team Lead: ASTM International Advanced Manufacturing Division.
  • Project Team: The Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin, SAE International, Baker Hughes, Wohlers Associates.

Project teams will report on their progress at the America Makes Technical Review and Exchange and other industry events during the execution phase of the program.