Jentek Sensors, Additive Assurance, Phase3D, Applied Optimization and Addiguru are participating in a three-month challenge to demonstrate the commercial viability of in-situ monitoring and data analytics solutions for metal additive manufacturing.
The Actionable In-Situ Awareness Challenge has been set up by ASTRO America in collaboration with ASTM International’s Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence and Florida State University’s Institute for Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Research, & Education (InSPIRE).
Since in metal additive manufacturing, quality control is often a post-print process, ASTRO America wants to implement a technology that can identify defects earlier in the 3D printing workflow, reducing time, waste and money.
Each participant in the challenge will install and test their monitoring systems on ASTRO America's metal 3D printing equipment at Maritech Machine in Panama City, Florida. They will be tasked with collecting meaningful in-process data, such as time-lapse imagery and performance logs, and demonstrating how this data delivers quantifiable value to end users in the defence and aerospace industries.
“Despite a long-standing understanding of the importance of monitoring and data analytics in additive manufacturing, users still lack clarity on which solutions offer genuine value,” said Dr. Abdalla Nassar, Vice President, ASTRO America. “This challenge is designed to help separate effective solutions from less impactful ones.”
The results are to be presented during a public showcase event in late August, which will be attended by representatives of ASTRO, ASTM, FSU Inspire and the finalists, as well as guest evaluators GE Aerospace, Northrop Grumman, and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and FSU.
Below, spokespeople from each finalist organisations have reacted to their selection as finalists in the Actionable In-Situ Awareness Challenge.
Jentek Sensors: “JENTEK Sensors is excited to be a finalist in this Challenge. Our in-situ eddy current array solution provides relatively high-resolution imaging of defects, geometry, and material properties without slowing down the process. The opportunity to showcase our capability and integrate onto another commercial machine is timely and critical to our commercialization plans. As we ramp our product sales for additive manufacturing LPBF, DED, AFSD, and cold spray, we welcome the chance to connect with influential stakeholders. The ASTRO technical team has been an outstanding resource as we work towards our August demonstration for this Challenge.”
Additive Assurance: "Additive Assurance is proud to feature our AMiRIS platform in the In-situ Awareness Challenge. We are optimistic that this program is the ideal opportunity to showcase the best of in-situ monitoring available today. By bringing these leading commercial solutions together, the challenge gives the industry an excellent opportunity to observe the powerful tools now available to improve quality, which is essential for building confidence and driving progress."
Phase3D: "We're thrilled to participate in the ASTRO In-situ Awareness Challenge and demonstrate how Fringe Inspection addresses the critical need for repeatable, calibrated in-situ monitoring in additive manufacturing,” says Niall O’Dowd, Founder & CEO of Phase3D. “Our product is uniquely positioned to meet all challenge requirements, delivering unit-based measurements with ±10 µm accuracy that are traceable to NIST standards—something no other in-situ monitoring solution can provide. Having already validated Fringe Inspection at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and U.S. Air Force facilities, we're confident in our ability to bridge the gap between in-situ monitoring and aerospace qualification standards. This challenge represents an excellent opportunity to showcase how metrology-driven inspection can transform additive manufacturing quality assurance for flight-critical applications."
Applied Optimization: “Applied Optimization is excited to showcase the Open Sensor Interface (OSI) in this challenge. The OSI is our custom additive manufacturing optics solution which directs and manipulates light from the melt pool to MWIR and visible optics trains. The ability to adjust the camera field of view and focus enables us to collect high-resolution images across the build plate using a variety of commercial-off-the-shelf sensors and cameras. This enables track-by-track thermal monitoring, part qualification, validation of thermal and thermodynamic models, and advanced process control.
Participating in this challenge is a very beneficial opportunity for us to demonstrate the OSI's capabilities and benefits to key potential collaborators in the manufacturing and defence sectors. This challenge has also pushed us to refine parts of the OSI and has given us new problems to solve, such as tracking melt pools on multi-laser machines. Finally, we are excited to partner with Episensors to demonstrate their NS-4 cooled MWIR camera on the OSI. High-cost MWIR cameras impose a barrier of entry for high-resolution thermal process monitoring with the OSI, but Episensors' high-quality economical cameras increase the affordability of the OSI for end users."
Addiguru: "We are honoured to be selected as a finalist for the In-Situ Awareness Challenge,” said Shuchi Khurana, CEO of Addiguru. “This opportunity allows us to showcase how Addiguru’s multi-sensor monitoring and analytics platform can provide real-time insights into the additive manufacturing process, enabling manufacturers to make informed decisions and reduce post-process inspection costs. We believe this challenge is a critical step toward accelerating the adoption of scalable, data-driven quality control in metal AM.”
Earlier this year, ASTRO America and ASTM International announced they had partnered to advance standards for large-scale additive manufacturing, while ASTRO last year established an aerospace & defence manufacturing research centre in line with the AM Forward initiative.
