EWI Wins $13.2M to Build Additive Manufacturing Quality Assurance System

EWI Cooperative Research Program has been named the winner of America Makes' $13.2 million INtegrated System for In-situ Testing and Evaluation (INSITE) project call. The award comes from the Office of the Under Secretary of War, Manufacturing Technology Office, and targets a specific bottleneck in additive manufacturing: proving that printed parts are actually good enough for defense use.

What the INSITE Project Actually Does

The program is not developing new sensors in isolation. It is building a unified quality assurance framework that combines in-situ monitoring with post-build non-destructive evaluation. The goal is to make the inspection process certifiable for Department of Defense supply chains.

That matters because current qualification methods struggle with large, dense, geometrically complex AM parts. Real-time monitoring catches problems during printing. Accelerated post-build inspection catches what the monitors missed. Together, they create a stronger case for certification without the lengthy rework cycles that slow production adoption.

Who Is Involved

EWI is leading the project. The full partner list includes organizations across the defense manufacturing base. America Makes, the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, and the DoD Manufacturing Technology Office are backing the effort.

Why This Matters Now

The defense industrial base is trying to move additive manufacturing from prototyping to production. Qualification is the gate that keeps most parts stuck in review. A streamlined, integrated inspection system could let more suppliers print critical components without waiting years for certification.

Ben DiMarco, Technology Transition Director at America Makes, put it plainly: the initiative brings advanced analytics, real-time process monitoring, and NDE into one comprehensive approach. By strengthening confidence in AM technologies, the work should accelerate adoption across the defense supply base.