Additive Assurance and Addiguru were ranked as the top companies in ASTRO America's inaugural Actionable In-Situ Awareness Challenge.
The tech challenge saw five companies perform live demonstrations of their sensor technologies on ASTRO America’s industrial-scale metal 3D printers, before presenting their findings to an expert panel of evaluators.
Additive Assurance and Addiguru were the two companies to most impress the judging panel, which featured representaives from the Air Force Research Laboratory, ASTRO America, Boeing, GE Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, Kratos, Stifel, ASTM International, and Florida State University.
The Actionable In-Situ Awareness Challenge was launched to address a 'persistent gap' in metal additive manufacturing, where quality control is still largely post-process and defects are often discovered only after lengthy, costly builds. By creating a competitive, real-world environment, the Challenge provided a pathway for sensor companies to prove their value to end-users across aerospace and defence. ASTRO America partnered with ASTM International’s Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence (AM CoE) and Florida State University’s Institute for Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Research, & Education (InSPIRE) to launch the tech challenge.
Following the challenge, Additive Assurance and Addiguru will each meet with Stifel's investment team to discuss future opportunities. All five finalists will also be invited to present their capabilities at ASTM International’s Conference on Advanced Manufacturing (ICAM) in Las Vegas in October, as well as have the opportunity to engage with Florida State University’s Inspiring the Generation of New Ideas and Translational Excellence (IGNITE) project, which connects small businesses to investors and incubator resources.
“Congratulations to Additive Assurance and Addiguru on earning the top scores in this inaugural challenge,” said Dr. Abdalla Nassar, Vice President and General Manager at ASTRO America. “Both companies demonstrated outstanding technical capabilities and real-world value to advance monitoring technologies for metal additive manufacturing. This Challenge shows what’s possible when industry, academia, and government work together to validate emerging solutions under real-world conditions.”
