Rapid Part Qualification Methodology of Aircraft Metallic Components using Direct Digital Manufacturing Technologies

Despite tremendous potential cost advantages, there is one very serious obstacle in the path of successful, widespread adoption of Direct Digital Manufacturing as a viable aerospace manufacturing technique: namely qualification and certification of processes, materials, and components. This roadblock to adoption is significant and dramatic. The cost implications alone of introducing a new material to aerospace, either on the airframe side or the engine side, are considerable, and the general rule of thumb is 2 years and $2M - $5M in non-recurring testing costs. Our unique approach to rapid qualification and certification combines limited and initial mechanical testing, advanced in-process sensing and process monitoring, microstructural characterization, and a statistical classification methodology that is truly multi-variate and can fuse these various inputs to result in a decision on whether or not a specific weld, deposit, or even part belongs in the same population as the nominal baseline certified parts, or is it anomalous in some way.