Phase3D will extend its Fringe Inspection platform into ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) after receiving funding from the Department of the Air Force.
CMCs are 'increasingly central' to next-generation propulsion, hypersonic, and thermal-protection systems, according to Phase3D.
The Department of the Air Force is rapidly expanding its use of advanced manufacturing to support agile sustainment, distributed production, and mission readiness, but the lack of deployable, real-time quality assurance tools remains a persistent barrier.
That gap is especially acute for CMCs, the Department suggests. CMCs offer exceptional thermal resistance, strength-to-weight ratio, and oxidation resistance compared with traditional metal alloys, making them attractive for turbine engines, hypersonic vehicles, and thermal-protection systems. Despite that promise, CMCs remain underutilised across Air Force sustainment and production environments because conventional non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods, developed largely for metals and polymer composites, cannot reliably detect the matrix cracking, fibre pull-out, porosity, and delamination that can occur throughout CMC fabrication.
The most immediate end users for this work are the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Propulsion Directorate (AFLCMC/ROD) and Rapid Sustainment Office (AFLCMC/RSO), along with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate (AFRL/RX). All three organisations are actively transitioning advanced materials into operational systems and require inspection tools that can be deployed at depots, OEM facilities, and research centres.
Fringe Inspection uses structured-light scanning to generate calibrated, repeatable surface heightmaps during production. This program will adapt that same core technology to CMC manufacturing, where defects can be introduced at nearly every stage, from tape fabrication and ply stacking through autoclave consolidation, pyrolysis, melt infiltration, and final machining. Phase3D will develop material-specific calibration routines, anomaly-classification models, and validation protocols that allow Fringe Inspection to identify surface deformation and defect signatures as CMC parts are built, rather than waiting for post-process CT scanning or destructive sectioning.
“Fringe Inspection was built to answer one question in real time: is the part you are building the part you designed?,” said Dr. Niall O’Dowd, Founder and CEO of Phase3D. “We’ve spent years proving that out on metal parts for NASA, the Air Force, and leading aerospace primes. This program lets us ask the same question of a completely different material system, one the Air Force is counting on for the next generation of propulsion and thermal protection, and where the cost of finding a defect after the part is finished is even higher than it is in metal.”
This Phase I effort will evaluate the feasibility of adapting Fringe Inspection to CMC production environments and identify the stakeholders and end users best positioned to carry the technology forward. Phase3D has already engaged Air Force stakeholders including AFRL, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex (OC-ALC), and Ellsworth Air Force Base through prior work, and will deepen those relationships over the course of the program.
“Ceramic matrix composites are notoriously hard to qualify because so much can go wrong across so many stages, from tape fabrication all the way through infiltration and final machining,” said Applications Engineering Manager Andrew Holiday. “The industry has been trying to solve that with post-process CT scans and destructive testing, the same approach that used to hold back metal additive manufacturing. Real-time, layer-by-layer visibility is exactly what this material needs, and it is exactly what Fringe Inspection already does.”
