EWI to lead $13.2 million America Makes project to improve metal AM quality assurance
America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) have selected EWI as the winner of the $13.2 million INtegrated System for In-situ Testing & Evaluation (INSITE) project call.
Funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of War, Manufacturing Technology Office (OSW ManTech), INSITE aims to develop an integrated quality assurance system for Additive Manufacturing. The three-year project will combine in-situ process monitoring with post-build non-destructive evaluation (NDE) to improve defect detection and support the qualification and certification of AM components.
“The EWI team is excited to take on this important programme. The organisation has built trust and confidence across industry and government in advanced manufacturing and nondestructive evaluation,” stated Steve Kelly, chief executive officer of EWI. “INSITE tackles one of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of Additive Manufacturing for critical defense parts, and we’re proud to have great partners with unmatched levels of expertise to solve it.”
The approach is intended to address inspection challenges associated with large components, dense materials and complex geometries that can be difficult to assess using conventional methods. By integrating real-time process monitoring, accelerated post-build inspection and expert oversight, the project aims to establish a quality assurance framework that supports Department of Defense requirements for AM qualification.
“As Additive Manufacturing advances toward larger, more complex applications, the ability to reliably verify part quality is becoming increasingly critical,” added 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.”
EWI’s project partners include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, GKN Aerospace GTC, LLC, Norsk Titanium, Addiguru, FormAlloy, TRI Austin and Computational Tools. Together, the team will contribute expertise in in-situ monitoring, data analysis and Directed Energy Deposition (DED), with aerospace manufacturers supporting certification and industrial adoption. Beyond the technology itself, INSITE will produce industry and military standards developed alongside US Air Force, US Army, and US Navy partners, giving manufacturers a documented path to adopting the framework.
“This is a major opportunity to advance nondestructive evaluation and help modernize the standards our industry relies on,” said Dr Lindsey Lindamood, EWI applications engineer and project lead. “A lot of what we use today hasn’t kept pace with new manufacturing technologies, and this programme gives us the tools to change that for both commercial and military applications.”
