EWI has been selected by America Makes to lead a new $13.2 million program aimed at cutting the cost of verifying quality in additively manufactured parts for the defense industrial base. The three-year effort, called INSITE (INtegrated System for In-situ Testing & Evaluation), targets one of the biggest bottlenecks in qualifying metal three-dimensional printing for critical military hardware: inspecting the finished part.
Directed energy deposition (DED), a metal 3D-printing process that can replace castings and forgings, allows faster and more flexible production and repair of defense components. But verifying those parts after the build can take as long as the build itself, particularly for complex geometries or dense materials that traditional inspection methods struggle to fully characterize. INSITE addresses that by tracking process data, thermal and visual imaging, and eddy-current array signals during the print itself, then using AI and machine learning to flag areas that need closer scrutiny. What's new here is the resulting workflow: instead of scanning an entire part after the fact, engineers get a targeted post-build inspection plan focused on flagged trouble spots, with a qualified professional reviewing and approving that plan before it runs.
EWI leads a team that includes aerospace manufacturers Boeing, GKN Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Norsk Titanium, alongside technology partners Addiguru, Computational Tools, FormAlloy and TRI Austin. The aerospace partners will help guide certification and speed adoption into active defense programs. "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."
Beyond the monitoring system itself, INSITE is set to produce industry and military standards developed alongside the U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy, giving manufacturers a documented path to qualify DED parts under a framework that, according to Dr. Lindsey Lindamood, EWI applications engineer and project lead, "hasn't kept pace with new manufacturing technologies." NCDMM, which administers America Makes' project calls, will oversee the award over its three-year term.
